Local

Saturday, February 24, 10:30am-1pm
Ohio Statehouse
ON FEBRUARY 24, join us for a national Day of Action in Columbus and cities across the country to show support for strong unions. We will join thousands of working people and our allies to stand up for our right to organize and to show how strong unions benefit all of us. Strong unions play a vital role in the fight for equitable pay, affordable health care, quality public schools, and making sure the future is secure for everyone. It’s time to end a system that’s rigged against working people.

Now wealthy special interests and ideological extremists want to rig the system further through a Supreme Court case called Janus v. AFSCME Council 31. This case is another attempt to limit the power of working people by weakening unions that give workers a powerful voice in advocating for themselves, and in OEA’s case, the students that we serve, their families and their communities.

Just as we proved in overturning Senate Bill 5, when we join forces and stick together, WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE! 

Friday, February 23, 5pm
The Midden, 379 Chittenden Ave.
Lets cook and drink and party!
Central Ohio Street Medic Collective (COSMC) provides first aid at protests and in the community. They’re holding a 20 hour training for new medics which Food Not Bombs has agreed to provide lunch for on the 24th and 25th. We’re expecting to feed 40-50 people. Come out and help us make something tasty (or just to hang out if you want)!

— Seven conservation groups have filed an administrative protest challenging a Bureau of Land Management plan to auction off 345 acres of Ohio’s Wayne National Forest for oil and gas fracking leases in March.

The protest, filed late Tuesday, notes that the leases would lock in dangerous fracking in the Wayne. Despite known threats from hydraulic fracturing, the BLM planned the auction using only a cursory review that avoids site-specific analysis of potential harm from fracking operations.

That means the public will have no information about pollution risks to streams, eradication of endangered species habitat and harm to nearby communities, which is required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Thursday, February 22, 2018, 6-7:30pm
905 Mt. Vernon Ave.
Join Leah Aden, Senior Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, who has come to Columbus on a fact-finding/investigatory trip to address the LDF's "substantial concerns" the Columbus City Council's at-large elections may violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Learn about "minority vote dilution" and at-large elections, from a top attorney at the nation's leading civil rights law firm. Engage in a panel discussion and town hall meeting with Ms. Aden, Jonathan Beard (Everyday People for Positive Change), Bob Fitrakis (professor of political science and attorney), and Al Warner (community activist and former Columbus NAACP chapter president) to discuss the extent to which Black community interests are addressed under the current system where every council member is elected with a majority White votes -- unlike in every other diverse big city in America -- each of which has changed to include at least on majority-minority electoral district under pressure from the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 53 years after Selma.

“Columbus residents hold rally in support of stricter gun regulation and safety in schools, in solidarity with the Florida students at Parkland High School”

A peaceful, youth-organized rally will be held at  the Ohio State House to protest against gun violence and our disagreement with unrestricted gun ownership policies.
 

What: Rally In Support of Stricter Gun Laws

Where: Ohio State House

When: 3:30 pm- 4:45 pm , Thursday February 22nd, 2018

Who: Led by the Amnesty International Columbus Alternative High School Chapter
 

Thursday, February 22, 3:30- 4:45pm
Ohio Statehouse
According to the Washington Post more than 150,000 students attending at least 170 schools have experienced a shooting on campus since the Columbine HS massacre in 1999. But this number is only the beginning of the problem, students everywhere are scared to attend school, fearing their school could be next, and their classmates deaths the next new story. We are tired of thoughts and prayers, we want policy and change NOW! Raise your voice with us and tell the government students’ lives and safety matter more than gun ownership!

I loved school from the minute I set foot in kindergarten. Blessed with two older sisters who brought home their schoolwork and parents who read, I was an apt and eager pupil when my older sister, Marva, taught me to read when I was four. (Since she is five years older, I’m sure it was under the guise of her babysitting and bossing me around, but who knew?) As someone who has earned a doctorate, is a professor, and a writer, I am convinced that teaching someone to read is the most valuable of gifts. I’ll always be grateful to Marva for it.

I attended Highland Avenue Elementary School here in Columbus, and had the most wonderful third-grade teacher in Carolyn Brunk Keller. The thing I liked most about her is that she loved to read, noticed that I did, too, and gave me every opportunity to do so. After that year, nothing would do but that I had to become a teacher. While I did a number of things before that, I finally landed in my chosen profession, albeit teaching at the college level rather than third grade as I assumed I would. When I saw Reading with Patrick in the book store, I was immediately intrigued.

Wednesday, April 3- 5, 2018
Buses are going from around Ohio. 
Sign up by March 1st! Registration.
Cost: $75/person plus incidentals. Buses will depart Columbus approximately More information. 
Facebook Event
 

Sunday, February 8, 1-4pm
400 W Wilson Bridge Rd, Worthington,
Workshop Goal: to prepare participants to meaningfully advocate with and for immigrants who are at risk of deportation.

About this Event

Please join the Central Ohio Worker Center for an introductory training on deportation defense campaigns. You will learn the basics of immigrant-led organizing, how immigration law works, and how and why people are arrested, detained, and deported. You'll also learn how you can help prevent deportation, and provide meaningful support for immigrant families. This workshop is particularly suited for social service providers, health care professionals, educators, and attorneys who have clients/students who are at risk of deportation. You do not have to be a social worker; this is a public event.

YOU MUST REGISTER through EventBrite in order to attend. Removal defense is a sensitive topic and we take the safety of our presenters and attendees very seriously. Citizenship not required. More information will be distributed by email to all registered participants before the event. Class size is limited to *50*, so register soon.

Saturday, February 17, 3pm
Columbus Metropolitan Library - Northside Branch, 1423 N High St.
SURJ is hosting an educational session about the history of mass incarceration and policing. Learn about how the practice of policing began and evolved through the present day. Workshop led by Aramis Sundiata from the People’s Justice Project and hosted by the Education Working Group of Showing Up for Racial Justice.