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Washington

Building Solidarity Around Survival: A Seattle Example

We are in for a long hard time in the U.S. and the world as a whole. The divisions between people have grown too deep. The concentration of power in individuals and institutions that care little about the common good, pursuing their own interests at its expense, is too great. The buildup of problems either unaddressed or insufficiently addressed has mounted to an overwhelming extent. The ascendancy of Trump and Musk has intensified the situation, but the trends were going the wrong way for a long time before. It is enough to make people throw up their hands in despair, wondering what they can do, or retreating entirely into personal life.

Japanese-Americans Confront ICE Detention

Seattle, Washington - With the increase of the U.S. Trump/Musk pogroms against immigrants, Japanese and Japanese-Americans have increased their solidarity against roundups, detentions and deportations of migrant workers. In Seattle, 400 people marched in the International District/Chinatown protesting U.S. immigrant detention on February 19, the Day of Remembrance. It’s the day in 1942, a few months after the U.S. entered World War II against Japan, when U.S. executive order 9066 was signed. President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the internment or imprisonment of Japanese-Americans who had emigrated to the United States and were living on the West Coast.

NLG Students Organize Against ICE Recruitment At Law Schools

In response to the ongoing cruel and unconstitutional raids on immigrants and their communities by the Trump administration, NLG law student chapters are organizing to stop recruitment efforts at their law schools by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). In late January, New York University (NYU) NLG initiated a campaign to demand that NYU uninvite and permanently bar ICE and DHS from all NYU-affiliated events, including the Public Interest Legal Career Fair (PILC). As they wrote in a letter outlining their demands, “Working with and welcoming ICE recruiters into our community is abhorrent in general, but even more so now, in the wave of violently anti-immigrant executive orders, escalated ICE raids, and the stripping of due process rights for noncitizens through the Laken Riley Act.”

Vote On ‘Social Housing’ Could Break Stranglehold Of Private Landlords

On a once-vacant plot of public land in Seattle, a cluster of mid-rise buildings surrounds a tree-filled courtyard. Children play on swings while adults run laps and chat on shared stoops. Some neighbors live in dorm-style rooms with common kitchens, others in family-sized townhomes — but all benefit from access to parks and transit, affordable rents and a democratic say in how their buildings run. None of this exists yet, to be clear. But it’s the vision, laid out in proof-of-concept sketches and during door-to-door canvassing conversations, that Seattle housing activists are hoping to make tangible to voters.

Indigenous Activists Honor Endangered Orcas At Governor’s Inauguration

Olympia, WA – Indigenous leaders and environmentalists held a ceremony on January 15, outside Governor Bob Ferguson’s inauguration, to honor the Southern Resident Orca population, which is suffering from environmental collapse. Nearly 100 people from around the state gathered to share in grief the tremendous loss that occurred at the turn of the new year. On December 21, an orca was born to Tahlequah, who made international headlines in 2018 when her baby passed away and she continued to carry it with her for 17 days and over 1000 miles.

Starbucks Workers Begin Five Day Strike In Seattle

Seattle, Washington – On Friday, December 20, Starbucks workers at five stores in Seattle went on strike. Anchored by the 24 hour picket line at the Reserve Roastery, one of Starbucks’ premiere stores, workers on these picket lines are planning to strike through December 24. Baristas are on an unfair labor practice strike after the company has continually stalled negotiations and engaged in bad faith bargaining. Starbucks workers say the company has not been willing to agree to pay that meets workers’ needs. “We make our store so much money, we make Starbucks so much money,” said Bruce Halstead, a striking worker at the Reserve Roastery.

Museum Security Workers Strike Against Billionaire Bosses

Seattle, Washington - About 70 service officers struck the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) on Nov. 29, “Black Friday,” hitting the museum’s rich bosses. The Visiting Service Officers Union (VSO), an independent union, put up a strong picket line on the strike’s opening day. Not only did the strikers have a militant picket line with chants, a sound system and colorful signs , they had informational leaflets, chant sheets, buttons and other union swag, along with food and beverages. The union had a giant inflatable rat, representing the museum’s ruling-class bosses and their union-busting private security contractor working inside the museum.

SeaTac Hotel Workers With UNITE HERE Local 8 On Strike

Seattle, Washington – On October 12, over 400 hotel workers at the Doubletree Seattle Airport and the Seattle Airport Hilton & Conference Center walked out and went on strike, joining hotel workers across the U.S. Workers at the two hotels are fighting for good raises, pension plan improvement, fair staffing and respect in their new contract. The picket began at 5 a.m., when dozens of workers joined the picket line outside both striking hotels. As they marched, they chanted, “What do we want? Contract! When do we want it? Now!” and “If we don’t get it, shut it down!” Workers carried signs that read “Respect our work,” “One job should be enough” and “Make them pay.” Cars and buses passing by honked their horns in support as the picket continued throughout the day.

Dispatch From The Boeing Picket Lines

When I booked a trip to the Pacific Northwest back in April, I didn’t think for a second that it would align perfectly with the largest strike in the United States so far this year. I just thought I’d be hiking and see the world’s largest rubber chicken in Seattle. But then 33,000 machinists at Boeing voted overwhelmingly to strike, despite the International Association of Machinists bureaucracy pushing workers to accept a sell-out contract. Less than a week later I was lucky enough to meet some of these workers on the picket lines. The flight from Newark to Seattle was six hours on a Boeing plane, so even before reaching the picket I was reminded of just how different mine and so many people’s lives would be if not for the machines these workers build.

More Security For Netanyahu’s Trip To DC Than For 32 Heads Of State For NATO

Unbelievably, the U.S. Congress invited the war criminal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress on July 24, thereby solidifying the complicity of the Executive and Legislative branches of the U.S. government in the genocide of Gaza. Incredibly, the security arrangements for one person, Benjamin Netanyahu, surpass those implemented for 32 heads of state during the recent NATO anniversary in Washington, D.C. While the NATO meetings involved high fences around the Washington Convention Center, the security for Netanyahu's visit includes fencing off the entire U.S. Capitol complex, placing barricades in front of the House of Representatives and Senate buildings and around the Watergate complex where he stayed.

Hundreds Protest NATO Summit, Hold Counter-Summit

Washington D.C. – On July 6 and 7, the Resist NATO coalition, formed by more than sixty anti-war, human rights, and diasporic grassroots organizations from across the U.S., held its own conference, rallied, and marched to protest the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit in Washington D.C. The coalition highlighted the role of NATO as the largest U.S.-led military alliance and its function to promote wars of aggression, increased militarization in the Indo-Pacific and across the globe, sanctions, cyberwarfare, and surveillance on people's organizations.  NATO’s 75th summit is occurring during the ongoing war in Ukraine in response to U.S.-NATO military escalation and territorial expansion, which has emboldened NATO to call on its members to provide billions in weapons and military aid.

Activists To Protest NATO Summit In Washington

Hundreds of demonstrators representing a diverse coalition of anti-imperialist and anti-war organizations are set to stage a mobilization ahead of the NATO summit, which will be held in Washington, DC from July 9 to 11. This protest is being organized by the Resist NATO coalition, which includes organizations such as the International League of Peoples’ Struggles, the Resist US-Led War Movement, and BAYAN-USA, which engages diaspora Filipinos in the struggle against imperialism. “NATO’s 75th summit is occurring during Russia’s counter-aggression strategy against US-NATO military escalation and NATO territorial expansion, which has enabled NATO to call on its members to provide billions in weapons and military aid.

Low Voltage Electricians Live To Strike Another Day

Two months into an unprecedented strike, the 1,023 members of the limited energy construction unit of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 46 in Seattle voted overwhelmingly June 11 and again June 15 to stay out. But the union announced June 17 that it had agreed to end the strike. Members would be voting on a third offer that barely differed from the latest rejected one—the raise had increased by 50 cents. In an emotional meeting, members were told the strike was ending regardless, and if they didn’t accept this latest deal, with no leverage they would likely end up with something worse. They voted it up by 85 percent. One big win, though: the union will live to strike another day.

ʔÁLʔAL A Place For Connection, Healing, And Growth

The Chief Seattle Club, CSC, has long since tended to and nurtured the seeds for growth, sowing opportunities, and holding space for healing. It is an important center we need for our Indigenous communities to survive and hopefully thrive in this urban Coast Salish territory of Seattle Washington. For me CSC has always stood as a place our Indigenous Urban community can find resources, give support, and or/ just be, no façade or mask necessary. This is CSC’s foundation, a place for us Urban Indians to connect or reconnect in an otherwise isolating urban setting. My own memories here at CSC go back decades, sitting in talking circles, filming, and learning from amazing indigenous teachers.

A Seattle Urban Garden Models What Community Input Should Look Like

More than 20 parks across Seattle support urban gardens developed and managed in partnership with local communities. From small community garden plots to large orchards, the gardens provide fresh, healthy food to community members across the city. Seattle Parks and Recreation, through itsUrban Food Systems Program, provides the land and the infrastructure for these projects. But community members are at the heart of each project, determining what to grow and how to plant and manage their gardens. One such project — the Rainier Community Center’s new urban garden — has received the2024 Toro Urban Park Innovation Award.
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