Dear ones,
I’m not a prankster, so there are no practical jokes embedded here. You have permission to stop reading if that’s what you came for!
Thursdays are throwback days, when I try to drum up a little more enthusiasm for some important actions. I wrote about unionizing workers earlier this week. On Tuesday, a bargaining session between the Columbia University administration and the Graduate Workers of Columbia (GWC) ended badly, with the University unwilling to compromise in spite of several concessions from the GWC:
The argument being made by Columbia is based on one simple lie repeated ad nauseam by every employer, in every strike: there is not enough money to provide workers decent wages and benefits. With an endowment of $11 billion and a Board of Trustees made up of millionaires and billionaires, graduate students should reject this assertion with the contempt it deserves.
Sign this petition to support striking workers at Columbia University.
And, of course, we need to raise our voices on behalf of the most vulnerable workers.
Call on the governor to provide aid to undocumented workers without onerous “verification requirements to prove loss of income caused by the pandemic.”
Black theater workers are organizing to gain fair working conditions, economic transparency, and an end to the six-day workweek. Everybody Black is calling on the Theater industry to develop an Antiracist Plan of Action.
Please write a letter in solidarity with Everybody Black, an organization working to transform the American theater industry.
I almost didn’t notice this sign in Prospect Park through my rain-spattered and fogged up glasses, since it looks so much like the reminders to maintain social distance.
It brought me up short, in a good way.
Learn more about the work of Stop AAPI Hate and support their work.
Support the Asian Mental Health Collective.
I have barely been able to read about the Chauvin trial. The jurors, the witnesses, and people watching at home (and Chauvin himself?) are reliving events that have indelibly marked their lives. One of the jurors became ill, witnesses broke down in tears. The National African American Reparations Commission has a 10-point plan for reparations. The fifth point is
Resources for the Health, Wellness, and Healing of Black Families and Communities.
We cannot heal until everyone heals.
Make your reparations contribution.
with love,
L