TWU and UFT Activists Discuss: The Rising Costs of Health Care & NYC Union Contracts - 6:00pm - Brooklyn Transit Wheelers Club 14 Williams Avenue (Crn. of East NY Avenue), A, C, L, Z to Bdway Junc. or J to Alabama Ave.

Co-sponsored by:

Transit Worker's Voices

http://www.homestationonline.org/

seminars@homestationonline.org or (212) 631-5857

and

Independent Community of Educators

http://www.ice-uft.org/

feedback@ice-uft.org or (917) 992-3734

Thursday MAY 1st
Stop the Raids & Deportations
Legalization Now · Justice for ALL
MASS RALLY for IMMIGRANT & WORKER RIGHTS

12 pm: Gather at Union Square, 14th Street & Broadway

4 pm: Rally & March

May Day 2008 is critically important. Will the optimism and hope expressed around the Presidential elections translate into an end of immigrant raids and deportations? Will it bring an end to the foreclosures of homes, the lowering of gas and food prices, or an end to lay-offs?

Whatever the outcome in November, the May 1st Coalition for Immigrant and Workers Rights will be marching once again on May Day, International Workers Day to say no to all the attacks against workers here and around the world.

We call on the progressive community, the anti-war movement, the women's & LGBT movement, and especially the labor movement, to come out for May Day 2008. March for solidarity, because an injury to one is an injury to all!read more »

Upcoming Discussion Group Topics

Activist Training for Single-Payer Healthcare
Sunday May 4th 3:00pm – 339 Lafayette St. Buzzer #11 A. J. Muste Institute

For one day the SP Discussion group will be converted into an activist training session. After reading, conversation and presentations participants will be able to conduct effective activist work around issues related to the campaign for national healthcare in the United States.

Readings:
“Universal Access to Healthcare,” Harvard Law Review, vol. 108, no. 6, Apr. 1995.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/democraticsocialistdiscussion/files/Healthcare/
Devi, Sridhar, “Inequality in the United States Healthcare System,” United Nations Human Development Report, 2005.
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2005/papers/hdr2005_sridhar_devi_36.pdfread more »

Activist Training for Single-Payer Healthcare
Sunday May 4th 3:00pm – 339 Lafayette St. Buzzer #11 A. J. Muste Institute

For one day the SP Discussion group will be converted into an activist training session. After reading, conversation and presentations participants will be able to conduct effective activist work around issues related to the campaign for national healthcare in the United States.

Readings:
“Universal Access to Healthcare,” Harvard Law Review, vol. 108, no. 6, Apr. 1995.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/democraticsocialistdiscussion/files/Healthcare/
Devi, Sridhar, “Inequality in the United States Healthcare System,” United Nations Human Development Report, 2005.
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2005/papers/hdr2005_sridhar_devi_36.pdf
H. R. 676 Bill for Single-Payer Healthcareread more »

Anarchist Elements of a Socialist Economy?
Sunday May 18th 3:00p - 339 Lafayette St. Buzzer #11 A. J. Muste Institute

What can socialists learn about workers self-management, communal organization and grassroots democracy from anarchist theory? Join the SP Discussion Group for an investigation of the new proposals offered by Michael Albert in his book and website ParEcon. We will also investigate selected documents relating to the self-managed factories (fabricas sin patron) in Argentina.

Readings:
ParEcon – Michael Albert
http://www.zmag.org/parecon/indexnew.htm
Sin Patron (selections to come)
http://www.haymarketbooks.org/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=Haymarket&Product_Code=L

Radical Pedagogy: Democratic Strategies in a time of Repression
Sunday June 22nd 3:00p - 339 Lafayette St. Buzzer #11 A. J. Muste Institute

Join the SP Discussion Group for a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the publication of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire’s liberatory education techniques have inspired generations of educators to transform their classrooms into experiments in democracy. Pedagogy of the Oppressed speaks to the promises left unfulfilled by capitalism – community, equality and democracy.

Readings:
Pedagogy of the Oppressed – Paulo Freire
http://marxists.anu.edu.au/subject/education/freire/pedagogy/index.htm
Selected Readings from Radical Educators including Ira Shor
http://www.lesley.edu/journals/jppp/4/shor.html

Coalition against Privatization
Meeting
Friday April 25th 6:30pm
339 Lafayette Street Buzzer #7
(718) 869-2279 or noprivatization@yahoo.com

In December 2007 GHI & HIP filed an application with the NY State Superintendent of Insurance to “convert” itself into a for-profit company. Conversion is a different way to say privatization. If approved, this privatization would expose 4 million GHI/HIP policy holders to the hazards of for-profit healthcare (premiums have increased more than 80% in the last seven years). Included in this pool are more than 500,000 city workers (retirees included) who will face a mega-corporation that is able to raise premiums at will, restrict access to care, increase CEO salaries and favor the accumulation of profits over healthcare.

To date, mainstream politicians have provided little resistance. Democrats from New York City to Albany have lined up with Republicans. They hope to cash in on the billion-dollar liquidation of GHI & HIP assets as part of privatization. The leaders of the city’s trade unions have also spoken in favor of the privatization thereby placing a short-term payout ahead of the long-term interests of members.read more »

Coalition against Privatization
Meeting
Friday April 25th 6:30pm
339 Lafayette Street Buzzer #7
(718) 869-2279 or noprivatization@yahoo.com

In December 2007 GHI & HIP filed an application with the NY State Superintendent of Insurance to “convert” itself into a for-profit company. Conversion is a different way to say privatization. If approved, this privatization would expose 4 million GHI/HIP policy holders to the hazards of for-profit healthcare (premiums have increased more than 80% in the last seven years). Included in this pool are more than 500,000 city workers (retirees included) who will face a mega-corporation that is able to raise premiums at will, restrict access to care, increase CEO salaries and favor the accumulation of profits over healthcare.

To date, mainstream politicians have provided little resistance. Democrats from New York City to Albany have lined up with Republicans. They hope to cash in on the billion-dollar liquidation of GHI & HIP assets as part of privatization. The leaders of the city’s trade unions have also spoken in favor of the privatization thereby placing a short-term payout ahead of the long-term interests of members.read more »