Downtown Labor Day Rally Draws Over 200 (tags)
MoveOn.org's San Diego chapter and other local activists hosted a Labor Day rally outside Horton Plaza in downtown San Diego Monday, September 5, featuring speakers like Congressmembers Bob Filner and Susan Davis, San Diego-Imperial Counties Central Labor Council secretary-treasurer Lorena Gonzalez, State Senator Juan Vargas, State Assemblymember Lori Salda?a, former City Councilmember Floyd Morrow and Activist San Diego president Jeeni Criscenzo. Much of the action urged solidarity with the supermarket workers threatened by their employers' demands for a takeaway contract and the likelihood of a strike. While most of the speakers said, "Jobs, jobs, jobs," Criscenzo urged listeners to take another look at the whole concept of a "job" and question why the only way we should be allowed to make a living is to beg a rich person or corporation for the chance to make them richer.
Over 1,000 Turn Out in San Diego to Support Wisconsin Workers (tags)
Over 1,000 people turned out for a rally outside the San Diego County Administrative Center February 26 at noon to support Wisconsin's unionized public workers against the threat by Governor Scott Walker and the Republican majority in the state legislature to pass a bill essentially eliminating the right of the state's public employees to unionize and bargain collectively. A wide range of speakers, including union activists, community leaders and elected officials, said that if Walker's bill and similar ones in other states pass, it will essentially mark the end of the American middle class. The rally was part of a nationwide mobilization, and many of those who braved the cold and the rain to attend mentioned that the protesters in Wisconsin itself are sleeping out in the cold and snow in weather far worse than that in San Diego.
“Know Your Rights,” Progressive Attorneys Tell Activist San Diego (tags)
Though guest of honor Ted Burke, one of 11 Midwest peace and social justice activists recently detained and harassed by the FBI, wasn't able to make Activist San Diego's November 15 meeting on law enforcement and political activism, the discussion was still compelling. Local attorneys and activists Kate Yavenditti, Frank Gormlie and Alex Landon reviewed the history of anti-Left and anti-progressive repression in San Diego and discussed what rights you have when you're stopped by law enforcement or when police officers come to your home.