Mexico: Non-violent struggle against the drug war; Olga Reyes to present in Portland

Mexican peace leader Olga Reyes will speak in Portland on Saturday, February 4th, 5:00 PM at 1131 SE Oak St. 

Portland Central American Solidarity Committee (PCASC) is co-sponsoring this event with Voz, AFSC, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the Oregon Peace Institute.

Olga is a leader in the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity in Mexico, and is a survivor of drug war related violence. Please join us as we listen to her story and learn more about the role of the US in the escalating drug war.

Olga Reyes' Background:

Olga Reyes Salazar comes from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, in Mexico. Her sister, Josefina Reyes, was a prominent activist for human rights and demilitarization in Juarez until she was murdered January 3, 2010, after one of her sons had been jailed and another murdered. In February 2011, Olga’s sister, brother, and sister-in-law were abducted, and subsequently found killed. Olga’s mother Sara issued a remarkable appeal to the kidnappers of her children in February, just before the family house was burned down.

Since the killing of her two siblings and sister-in-law in February, Olga has participated in the two “caravans of consolation” led by poet Javier Sicilia, that traveled from central Mexico to the U.S. border in June and to Chiapas and the Guatemala border in September.

Olga brings a powerful testimony of the human costs of the drug war, militarism and gun trafficking, and of the growing movement to forge a different path in Mexico. The United States plays an important part.

Oregon State Bank Forum February 1, 2012 ---- Salem, Oregon

Oregon New Sanctuary Movement Dinner

ONSM 3rd Annual “Love Has No Borders Celebration Dinner”
Saturday, March 17th, 2012
5:30pm-7pm
First Unitarian Church, Buchan Room
1011 SW 13th Ave, Portland
Tickets are $25. Save the date!

Join the Trust Women March

This week marks the 39th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade ruling and advocates for women’s rights are celebrating an important victory. The Obama administration announced Friday that health insurers must provide free access to birth control as part of the reforms established by the Affordable Healthcare Act.

At the same time we are witnessing the most unprecedented assault on women’s reproductive health and rights.

The 2010 elections swept in anti-abortion and anti-contraceptive state legislatures across the country who quickly got to work attacking everything from women’s insurance coverage of abortion to state funding for birth control and cancer screenings.

135 reproductive rights laws were enacted in 36 states, 68 percent of which restrict access to abortion.

Over 86% of counties do not have an abortion service provider, funding for women's health care is increasingly restricted, and several states are seeking to pass "personhood" statutes which would criminalize abortion and even miscarriage.

It seems each state legislature tries to outdo the next with their war on women.

The US House of Representatives attempted to eliminate Title X, the federal program that helps provide reproductive health services to low-income and uninsured Americans. They are attempting to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funding, which is being defunded by some reactionary state legislatures.

And because this is an election year, women's health and reproductive justice are in the spotlight.

All of the Republican presidential candidates are opposed to reproductive and health rights and favor the repeal of Roe vs. Wade and elimination of Title X funding.

This war on women is provoking a big fightback and a commitment to mobilize a massive vote in defense of women’s rights in November.

You can raise your voice today.

Reproductive-rights groups are fighting back with a simple but powerful pro-choice message: Trust women.

We’re joining with scores of organizations in the Trust Women online march. This is a way for us to stand in solidarity, show our numbers, and send a strong message to elected.

Click here to join the march and send your message.

The Trust Women March will deliver your message, along with those of all the other marchers, to Congress and other elected officials to make a difference for women's health and reproductive justice at the national and state level.

Now is the time to speak out.


Esther Moroze
CPUSA National Board

See related articles below:

“On Roe vs Wade Anniversary, a big win for women from Obama administration” PeoplesWorld.org, Jan. 23, 2012:

"White House stands firm in birth control battle," The Washington Post, January 20, 2012:

Act NOW to Suspend HEM Surcharges - Update

After the HEM joint labor management committee recommended that HEM surcharges be suspended, SEIU 503’s PEBB representatives brought petitions signed by thousands of us requesting such a suspension to the January PEBB meeting where board members:

*pushed the deadline to fill out the Health Risk Assessment back a month to March 15 and
*agreed to call a special meeting to discuss all of the HEM committee recommendations on Thursday, February 16.

There is still time to sign the petition to suspend the surcharges. If you haven’t had the opportunity to do so already, please click on the following link to add your name:

Suspend HEM Surcharge Petition

As we said in our last email, we have no quarrel with the idea of a health engagement model. Getting people to actively participate in their health should lead to longer and healthier lives and bring down health care costs. However, it’s not clear to the committee that the current HEM model with its punitive surcharges will work and our top recommendation is to suspend the surcharges.

For more details on other recommendations the joint HEM labor management committee made, please see our January 13 email: http://www.seiu503.org/2012/01/pebb-suspend-hem-surcharges/

The PEBB meeting is open to the public so for those who want to attend, the special meeting is scheduled on Thursday, Feb. 16 from 10am – 1pm in the PEBB-OEBB board room at 1225 Ferry St in Salem. We will send a report out afterward to let you know the PEBB board responses to our recommendations.

In unity,

Keary DeBeck, DOJ, Salem
Sabrina Freewynn, OHA, Portland
Wednesday Martin, DHS, Roseburg
Lois Yoshishige, UofO, Eugene
Shaun Parkman, Alternate, OHA, Portland
Siobhan Martin, Staff Advisor

hemcommittee@seiu503.org

AFL-CIO’s Trumka Acknowledges Labor’s Divisions Over Keystone Pipeline

On Thursday January 12, at the UN Investor Summit on Climate Risk, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka spoke publicly about divisions in the labor movement over the proposed Keystone Pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico if built.

Disagreements between unions over the pipeline wasn't news, but the fact that Trumka acknowledged them was. It was the first time I've heard Trumka say that unions that were on different sides of the politically sensitive issue - some for, some against. Several AFL-CIO observers also commented that it was the first time they had a president of the labor federation talk about why unions were divided on key issues. (They declined to speak on the record because of the matter's sensitivity.)

Read more here.

INCOME INEQUALITY: NEW STUDY HIGHLIGHTS LGBT STATS

There is a new report from the "Half In Ten" Program. This is a campaign by the Center For American Progress and other groups that aim to reduce poverty by half in ten years. The way things are going they have a tough row to hoe. But according to their latest study there are members of the LGBT community who experience vast income inequality compared to their heterosexual peers. "Lesbian couples tend to have much higher poverty rates than either heterosexual or male couples" according to the report titled, "Restoring Shared Prosperity: Strategies To Cut Poverty And Expand Economic Growth". Older Lesbian couples are twice as likely to live in poverty as straight couples. This is not surprising to our community but seeing the statistics certainly justifies what we already know. These statistics extend to the children of gay couples. Those children are twice as likely to be poor as sons and daughters of straight, married couples.

One of the solutions to start addressing all this disparity is Marriage Equality. However state by state equality won't change these statistics very much. It must be Federal Marriage Equality to make a real difference in our lives. Melissa Boteach who worked with this study explained by the numbers. "A married heterosexual couple with $45,000 in income filing their taxes jointly would get a $50 refund from the federal government. A same sex couple has to file separately and they would owe $2,165 in taxes." She goes on to explain the obvious, "Lesbian couples are especially hard-hit as women continue to make less than men - 78 cents to every dollar. That difference is strongly felt in families where two women are raising children."

But she doesn't continue with looking at the area where there is the most blatant heterosexual privilege, which is in the Social Security system. And unfortunately "Half in Ten" is calling for the passage of Obama's American Jobs Act which includes large cuts to the Medicare Program which will negatively affect all seniors living in poverty.