[usas] day of Chaos - oct24-Boston

* * * CALL TO ACTION * * *

If you’ve ever gone up against the IMF-

If you hate the WTO-

WE NEED YOU TO FIGHT UNICCO!

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On strike since September 30, the 10,000 janitors in Boston need your solidarity now more than ever. Almost all of them are immigrants, forced from their home countries by corporate globalization only to clean the offices and bathrooms of the same corporate cronies who enforce the policies of neoliberalism. Janitors in our community are paid slave wages, denied full-time work opportunities and have no health care. Most are forced to work 2 or 3 jobs, and still barely live paycheck to paycheck, with no hope for working themselves out of poverty. We’re standing up to demand that these insane abuses of human rights end!

NOW IS THE TIME FOR WORKERS AND STUDENTS TO UNITE AGAINST CORPORATE CONTROL OF OUR LIVES AND COMMUNITIES

“They still seem to cling to the idea they want to see more full-time jobs with more people having health insurance.”

–Unicco negotiator & VP James Canavan, quoted in Boston Herald 9/10/02

Contractors, the largest being UNICCO, building owners like Equity and Fleet Bank of Boston -- which was entrenched in the IMF program that fueled the economic collapse of Argentina -- have refused the janitors full-time work opportunities, health care, and decent wages for too long.

In an unprecedented mobilization, the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP), United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), Jobs with Justice along with national and local community groups, call upon students and people of conscience to stand with the janitors in a day of multiple direct actions across the city. We are asking people to “Take the Day Off for Justice” to create a mass mobilization though the streets of Boston and the hearts of the corporations holding our community back.

WE NEED YOU TO JOIN US IN BOSTON

Never has a local struggle been so important to the larger movement. The companies have drawn the line in the sand here in Boston.

A setback here, in a local struggle of this magnitude, would be interpreted as a failure of solidarity, and could lead to major losses in the labor movement. A diverse coalition, breaching lines of race, age, class, faith, ethnicity and gender has reached a consensus: that janitors should be treated with dignity. Today, Saturday the 19th, over 1500 people from these communities rallied and marched through Boston in support of Justice for Janitors. The mayor is meeting daily with the janitors, students have walked out of classes, the governor has kicked UNICCO out of the State House, over 50 people, including a state senator, have been arrested in acts of civil disobedience, unions have refused to cross picket lines, and congressmen are pressuring building owners. Even so, in the face of all of this, companies are still trying to starve the workers out. In order to hold these corporations accountable, we must take direct action. A win in Boston is the gateway to victories across the country, and proof that worker-community solidarity can succeed in overthrowing corporate power.

We are arranging FREE transportation from a number of cities across the country for anyone wishing to spend the day in solidarity with the janitors in Boston. Get here for the spokes council on Wednesday night; if you can’t make it, we’ll have a briefing Thursday morning. If you or your organization is interested in coming, or if you are willing to get arrested, please e-mail BostonSLAP@hotmail.com or call Mandie at 617-824-7135.

Boston SLAP supports non-violent, diverse tactics to topple the corporate tyrannies that seek to undermine our unions, our democracy, and a decent standard of living. For a schedule of events, more information on the campaign, or on Boston SLAP, please see www.bostonslap.org, (details available on 10-21).

See you on the streets!!!

Festivities start at 6 am with a wake up call for UNICCO.  Lisa Fithian, of Seattle and LA Justice for Janitors renown, will be helping to organize direct actions all day long