Local
VP Mike Pence will be giving the keynote address at the Ohio Oil and Gas Association conference Friday, March 8th, 11am-1pm.
Bring your signs and come welcome him to Columbus. We will gather on the sidewalk along next to the Hilton Hotel along Easton Way, between Chagrin Drive and Easton Loop.
Let's let the VP know how we feel about family separation, the Border Wall, Women's Right to Choose, LGBTQ+ Rights, Voting Rights, Healthcare, and the rollback of environmental laws.
Columbus voters have line-item budget appropriation powers at the ballot this May. It will be split into five separate bond issues ranging in amount from $50 million to $425 million coming to a grand total of $1.03 billion for all five. The following is a breakdown of what exactly each bond issue could, but not necessarily will fund, according to the city and county officials I have contacted, as well as other documents made public by the city. Most are straightforward things that you would expect your city budget to cover, but some are more ambitious proposals, with one being downright historic for our city.
This article first appears on Socialistworker.org
On December 7, the Columbus Police Department (CPD) murdered yet another Black person: 16-year-old Julius Ervin Tate Jr.
An undercover SWAT team arranged for one of its agents, posing as a potential buyer, to meet Tate to for a sale of merchandise for cash that had been arranged online. Columbus police are carrying out a series of such sting operations involving buy, sell and trade transactions, in which they anticipate an armed robbery to occur.
Police claim Tate pulled a gun on the agent to rob him, prompting another officer, Eric Richard, to shoot Tate, according to CPD spokesperson Chantal Boxill. The CPD also claims Tate’s gun was recovered at the scene.
International Women's Day
Friday, March 8, 12pm
Goodale Park, 120 W. Goodale Blvd.
Beginning at Goodale Park, 120 W. Goodale St.; and ending at Bricker Hall (on the OSU campus), 190 N. Oval Mall
It’s time to put these universities’ principles into action. Young people, community leaders, and farmworkers are calling for a national boycott of this hamburger chain, demanding that, instead of cheap “4 for $4” deals, that Wendy’s put human rights on the menu. See us on Facebook.
On March 7 at 3:15 PM, 25 members of the Ohio State University community including undergraduate and graduate students, staff , and alumni entered Bricker Hall and began a sit-in outside of President Drake’s office to demand OSU end its business relationship with the fast food giant Wendy’s. The sit-in is the latest escalation of the years-long, student-led “Boot the Braids” campaign to remove Wendy’s from campus during which students have fasted, and marched, in protest of the fact that Wendy’s refuses to protect farmworker human rights by joining the CIW’s Presidential Medal-winning Fair Food Program.
Thursday, March 7, 7-9pm
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 30 W. Woodruff
Join us for a gathering to make art and posters, eat food, and prepare for International Women's Day. We will discuss two upcoming International Women's Day events: the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' march to get Wendy's off campus, and the sit-in/rally at DeWine's office to protest the 6-week ban on abortion.
CIW March:
https://www.facebook.com/events/394417558010686/
Stop the 6-Week Ban! sit in and rally:
https://www.facebook.com/events/322537071595793/
International Women’s Day developed out of socialist struggles in the early 1900s which demanded women’s voting rights, creation of nurseries, free meals and learning tools in schools and kindergartens, social assistance for mothers, single parents, and children, and creation of labor laws for working women.
On International Women’s Day 2019 (March 8), hundreds of farmworkers, students, people of faith, community leaders and allies from across the country will march from Goodale Park to Ohio State University President Drake’s office as part of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) nationwide “4 for Fair Food” human rights tour. The CIW will be joining the campus-based “Boot the Braids” campaigns to end the schools’ business relationships with the national fast food chain, Wendy’s, until it joins the CIW’s Presidential Medal-winning Fair Food Program.
In breaking news ahead of the tour, it was announced that Wendy’s will not be invited back to the University of Michigan, making UM the first university to “boot” Wendy’s from campus. The decision to not invite Wendy’s back was declared through formal resolutions from the Michigan Union Board of Representatives, the UM student government, and the local Ann Arbor City Council.
Columbus, Ohio – Ahead of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine delivering his State of the State address, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio highlights how Governor DeWine’s priority to outlaw abortion and criminalize medical professionals for providing care to patients by signing the six-week abortion ban undermines his rhetoric to make Ohio a healthier, more prosperous state.
Statement from Lauren Blauvelt-Copelin, Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Affairs, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio:
“We anticipate to hear Governor DeWine to discuss his administrations’ proposed priorities for children. However, DeWine’s administration does not support women’s well-being, including their ability to make their own reproductive health care decisions, so they cannot stand behind their promise to do the same for children.
“Children largely depend on women and mothers for their care. Governor DeWine’s promise to sign a dangerous six-week abortion ban will severely undercut any efforts to address Ohio’s alarming infant mortality rate, unemployment, and economic opportunity.”
March 6th, Sandy Hook Promise applauded the introduction of the Safety and Violence Education for Students (SAVE Students) Act in the Ohio State House. This new legislation in Ohio is aimed at combating the crisis of violence, bullying, and suicide that is devastating our nation’s schools. If passed, this bill would set a new national standard for statewide school safety programming.
In response to the introduction of this legislation, Sandy Hook Promise released the following statement: “We know school violence is preventable when we teach youth and adults to ‘know the signs’ of violence and suicide and get help to stop a tragedy before it can happen,” said Mark Barden, co-founder and managing director of Sandy Hook Promise, and father of Daniel who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy. “This legislation would protect Ohio’s students across the state and create a national model for prevention that empowers our youth to help save lives.”
A mass organization can’t make it without members and volunteers doing a tremendous amount of work. There is no way that any level of dues collection or number of self-sufficiency schemes can ever substitute for all of the work needed to build large organizations. At the same, it’s almost impossible to be sustainable without some staff.
Recently, I was in Ireland for the first-time visiting tenant support and action groups in Dublin, Limerick, and Galway. Their work over the years had been amazing. The support groups had done great work in eviction defense. At different times the groups had been able to come together, particularly in Dublin, to rally thousands against government cutbacks or mass evictions in private and social housing with all the work done by volunteers and activists.