US Gov't MASS ARRESTS Political Dissidents Protesting US Gov't

People around the world are currently standing up to their corrupt governments, banks & politicians. While corporate media ignores the significance of today's GLOBAL call for accountability, for those who have forsaken Human Rights for profit & for profiteers; The People of France are rising up against their recently increasing Police State

The People of Iceland just ousted their Prime Minister & continue to protest for (another) cleanup & restructuring of government, after the Panama Papers revealed him to be one of the global OLIGARCHS defrauding his own people for personal profit, while holding an office which comes with a vow to serve & protect those very people --- a global trend which is being exposed worldwide at this very moment

Democracy Spring has shown that when protesters against government corruption in the USA take their VOICE to the steps of their highest government building --- those very criminal OLIGARCHS responsible for defrauding & selling into debt-slavery the domestic & global population at their own personal financial profits --- they simply abuse their own corrupt police forces to fraudulently MASS ARREST citizens who are arriving with a legitimate grievance 

Meanwhile these criminal OLIGARCHS & their corrupt police forces (which by inflicting MASS ARREST are themselves, committing crimes against the citizenry) simply abuse the rights of those who call out the corrupt, with an air of seeming impunity; It's a pretty great system --- if you are in fact, a Criminal OLIGARCH 

However, their time is running out & The People are waking up, more & faster than ever. The People are showing up to TAKE our POWER back & to PROTECT our RIGHTS against an increasingly obvious out of control, corrupt government 

MASS ARREST as a WAR CRIME

Indiscriminate mass arrests were designated a war crime in 1944 by a Commission on war crimes created by the London International Assembly. This was one of two items added by that Commission to the list of war crimes that had been drawn up by the Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and on Enforcement of Penalties in 1919. Specifically, "indiscriminate mass arrests for the purpose of terrorizing the population" were designated as war crimes by the Commission.[18]

At the Netherlands temporary court martial in 1947, several members of the tokkeitai in the Netherlands East Indies were accused of the war crime of indiscriminate mass arrests. The applicable legislation, used by the court, was the NEI Statute Book Decree #44 of 1946, whose definition of war crimes paralleled the Commission's list. Specifically, item #34 of the enumerated list of war crimes under the NEI legislation was "indiscriminate mass arrests for the purpose of terrorising the population, whether described as taking hostages or not"

The court understood the definition of such unlawful mass arrests to be as "arrests of groups of persons firstly on the ground of wild rumours and suppositions, and secondly without definite facts and indications being present with regard to each person which would justify his arrest". To this it added commentary on indiscriminate mass arrests that are for the purpose of terrorizing the populace, stating that they "contained the elements of systematic terrorism for nobody, even the most innocent, was any longer certain of his liberty, and a person once arrested, even if absolutely innocent, could no longer be sure of health and life" [19]

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Detailed Police Assaults on
Occupy Wall Street Protesters (2011)

 Cecily McMillan's UPDATE since being attacked
by the NYPD at Occupy Wall Street
in New York City (late 2011)

a Violent Authoritarian Regime
clings to Ill-Gotten & Corrupt Power by using
Violence & Intimidation against its own People

(US GOV'T Violent Assaults on Occupy Wall Street
coordinated Coast to Coast by FBI & DHS in 2011)

 #IMPRISON CRIMINAL OLIGARCHS 

MLK Day Living Wage Vigils at 15 Fast Food Restaurants - January 18, 2016

Local living wage activists will hold vigils simultaneously at fifteen (15) fast food restaurants throughout Tompkins County on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 18) from 3:30-4:30. Will you join us? The Tompkins County Workers’ Center (TCWC) is organizing the vigils with three (3) objectives: Ensure that all fast food workers in Tompkins County, along with their employers, are aware of the new $9.75 fast food minimum wage effective January 1, 2016; Continue building a groundswell demanding that Tompkins County pass a law ensuring a Living Wage for ALL workers in the county; Honor Martin Luther King Jr, and specifically his commitment to working people and to a living wage for all working people. No one who works all day and all week should find on the weekend that they don’t have enough in their pocket to support themselves and their families. A full time job should not be a route to poverty, but a path to opportunity. Let us know and we will assign you to a location where you will join a group of TCWC Living Wage supporters with informational picket signs provided (or bring your own). Locations will include the following: Ithaca Five Guys/Taco Bell, 222 Elmira Road, Ithaca Commons Plaza, Ithaca Jimmy Johns, corner of Seneca and Aurora Sts. Ithaca Chipotle, 740 S. Meadow Street, Ithaca Wendys, 326 Elmira Road, Ithaca Moe’s Southwest Grill, 324 Elmira Road, Ithaca Dunkin Donuts, corner of Green St. and Route 13, Ithaca Starbucks, corner of Seneca and Tioga Sts., Ithaca McDonald’s, 372 Elmira Road, Ithaca Burger King, East Hill Plaza, Ithaca Dominos Pizza, 311 E. Green Street, Ithaca Lansing McDonald’s, 2350 N. Triphammer Road, Lansing Auntie Anne’s and Subway@ Shops at Ithaca Mall (in front of Ramada Inn), Lansing Dryden McDonalds, 51 North Street (Route 13), Dryden Dunkin Donuts, 36 North Street (Route 13), Dryden Trumansburg Subway, 2078 NY-96, Trumansburg Dr. King would approve: “For we know now,” he once stated, “that it isn’t enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t have enough money to buy a hamburger?” “There is nothing but a lack of social vision,” he said another time, “to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every American whether he [or she] is a hospital worker, laundry worker, maid, or day laborer.” And a final quote: “Now the problem isn’t only unemployment. Do you know that most of the poor people in our country are working every day? They are making wages so low that they cannot begin to function in the mainstream of the economic life of our nation. These are facts which must be seen. And it is criminal to have people working on a full-time basis and a full-time job getting part-time income.”

ACTION ALERT: 11/10/15: TCWC Plugs Into Fight for $15 Day of Action

On Tuesday, November 10th, from 4:30 to 6 p.m., at the corner of Seneca and Tioga Sts. in downtown Ithaca (Bank Alley), the Tompkins County Workers' Center (TCWC) asks you to join us as we stand as and with all the underpaid Tompkins County residents who work in service and retail jobs across the board to demand a Living Wage for all.


The Tompkins County Workers' Center is spearheading a campaign locally that plugs into the national Fight for $15 movement with our own creative version of a Countywide Minimum Wage that is a Living Wage (presently $14.34/hour) for every single worker in the County. As we recently learned that Tompkins County is the EIGHTH most expensive place to live in the United States for a family of four in research done by the Economic Policy Institute, we no longer accept wages that just CANNOT help people make ends meet. With a solid strategic plan to make the minimum wage a Living Wage, working its way through the County Legislature, and then State government, we need YOUR HELP to make this a reality!

As Milton Webb, Organizing Committee Member for the Minimum Wage as Living Wage campaign (and a major instigator of the move to pressure Casella Waste Systems to pay its recycling workers a Living Wage) is fond of saying: "A Living Wage will make things better for families, for the economy, for everybody. The money will be spent right here in Ithaca. To all of the people who don’t earn a Living Wage because they’re employer won’t pay a Living Wage, hang in there, it’s coming.”

Ithaca Area 8th Most Expensive in Country

                     

New National Family Budget Study Released: Ithaca Area 8^th Most Expensive in Country

(ITHACA) A new national study by the Economic Policy Institute http://www.epi.org/press/updated-family-budget-calculator-shows-what-it-takes-to-get-by-in-618-communities/ ranks the greater Ithaca area (Ithaca MSA) as the 8^th most expensive metropolitan area in the country for a two-parent, two-child household (more expensive than San Francisco and only a few notches below New York City).

EPI’s Family Budget Calculator, which includes data for 618 communities throughout the country and is updated through 2014, estimates that a two-parent, two-child household would need $92,603 to attain a modest standard of living in the Ithaca MSA.Both of the adults in this household would have to be fully employed and earn over $22/hour each to manage this family budget. The Calculator also estimates basic family budgets for seven other family types (http://www.epi.org/resources/budget/budget-factsheets/#/405).

The new data highlights in even more stark and disturbing terms how workers in low wage jobs – anything less than $15 or so per hour – cannot make ends meet and struggle mightily and sometimes fail to meet their or their family’s basic needs. According to USDOL figures for 2014, for example, the median wage for four of the more common occupations in the Ithaca area is $8.97 for fast food workers, $9.07 for cashiers, $10.43 for retail sales workers, and $10.97 for home health aides (http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_27060.htm).Making matters much worse, many of these workers also face less than full-time or full-year work and unpredictable or on-call scheduling.

“These data show more than ever,” said Pete Meyers, TCWC Coordinator, “how critical it is for our community and our County Legislators to come together now to demand and enact a minimum wage in Tompkins County that is a Living Wage.It is long past due for our local government representatives to pay attention to the needs of so many of our struggling working families. Our situation is more critical than almost anywhere else in the entire country. And we cannot wait for others to do this for us.”

Monday 9/7/15, Annual Labor Day Picnic in Ithaca at Stewart Park from 11 am - 3 pm

The Midstate Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and the Tompkins County Workers' Center will hold the 32nd Annual Labor Day Picnic from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday, September 7th, in Ithaca's Stewart Park. This year’s picnic theme is “Organize for Respect”.

The Labor Council and Workers’ Center invite YOU to join us and enjoy free picnic fare, music, and presentations of awards. The picnic is free and everyone is invited. Everyone is asked to bring a dish to share and to enjoy the free burgers (meat and veggie), hot dogs, and beverages.

Says Dave Marsh, President of the Tompkins-Cortland Building Trades Council and Business Agent for Laborers Union Local 785: "As the community comes together to celebrate another year of progress for workers at the 32nd Annual Labor Day Picnic, let us also ensure that we are all doing our part to build a strong local economy for workers".

The annual awards have become a highlight of the Labor Day Picnic over the years, and this year will be no different. The Mother Jones and Joe Hill awards are presented to people for their activism, organizing, and sacrifice at work. The Friend of Labor award is presented to a member of the community who has spoken out publicly or taken action in support of working people. The notorious Goat of Labor goes to an especially egregious offender of workers’ rights and/or the value of labor to our common good.

Local human service agencies, Living Wage Employers, and other organizations are welcome to have organizing tables at the event (however, please contact in advance). For more information, contact the Workers' Center at TCWRH@tcworkerscenter.org, 607-269-0409, or via the website, www.TCWorkersCenter.org

Town of Ithaca Backs Countywide Minimum Wage as Living Wage - August 10, 2015

On Monday evening, 8/10, the Ithaca Town Board, by a unanimous vote, became the first governmental agency in Tompkins County to publicly endorse the Tompkins County Workers’ Center (TCWC) campaign, to mandate a minimum wage for EVERYONE who works in Tompkins County that is a Living Wage ($14.34/hour in Tompkins).

Says Ithaca Town Supervisor Herb Engman: “The Town Board realized that the issue today isn’t just jobs but jobs that pay wages people can live on. The widening income gap has gotten a lot of attention nationally, and more local governments are taking action to raise the minimum wage, which has fallen over the years in terms of spending power.”

Town Board Member, Pat Leary, added: “The affordable housing gap can’t be closed by addressing just the housing side of the equation: housing has become increasing unaffordable because wages haven’t kept up. A living wage can help improve the lives of millions of people in many aspects of their lives.”

See text of Resolution below:
MEETING OF THE ITHACA TOWN BOARD
Monday, August 10, 2015

TB RESOLUTION 2015 – 089: SUPPORT FOR A TOMPKINS COUNTY MINIMUM WAGE THAT IS A LIVING WAGE

WHEREAS raising incomes is critical to providing economic mobility and opportunity for working families and

WHEREAS the growth in income inequality in recent years has created serious divisions within our society and community and

WHEREAS Tompkins is increasingly becoming two counties with a portion of the population thriving while many more face low wages, growing inequality, erosion of middle-class jobs, high housing costs and the institutionalization of a low-wage service economy and

WHEREAS a full-time minimum wage worker in New York earns $18,200 which is significantly below the current Tompkins County living wage of $29,827 and

WHEREAS a higher minimum wage would likely help stimulate the local economy and

WHEREAS a higher minimum wage would likely reduce the need for and
the cost of providing social services in Tompkins County and

WHEREAS our community has a proud tradition of advocating for worker
rights and promoting economic justice and

WHEREAS we as a community and we as a country can no longer accept wages that leave some unable to support themselves or their families and

WHEREAS some say that raising the minimum wage locally is “too complicated,” without acknowledging how complicated it is trying to live on $8.75/hour

Now therefore be it

RESOLVED that the Town of Ithaca requests that the Tompkins County Legislature pass a local minimum wage law establishing the Tompkins County Living Wage ($14.34/hour) as the minimum wage, and indexing it to the NYS, regional, or county median wage and be it further

RESOLVED that the Town Board requests that the County pass a home rule request seeking the authority to implement such a local minimum wage and be it further

RESOLVED that the Town calls on the NYS Legislature to promptly pass this home rule request.

Moved: Pat Leary Seconded: Eric Levine

Vote: Ayes – Leary, Levine, Engman, DePaolo, Hunter and Goodman

Stop Giving Away Our Money! Rally Thursday August 13, 2015 at 3:30 pm at Tompkins IDA meeting

Who: All Who Support Living Wage Jobs and Local Labor

What: An Important 'Action' Outside Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) Meeting

Where: Tompkins County Legislature Building, 121 E. Court Street, Ithaca

When: Thursday, August 13th, 3:30-4 p.m. (IDA Meeting Begins at 4 p.m. inside Legislature Bldg)

Why: Demand IDA Stop Giving Away Local Money to Low-Wage Out of the Area Contractors and Adopt a Local Labor Policy

---

Many of us in the community including the Tompkins County Workers' Center, the Tompkins-Cortland Building Trades affiliates, and the Coalition for Sustainable Economic Development have been trying to get the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) to adopt a Local Labor policy for all tax abatement projects.

There is going to be over $200 million dollars of private work in the City of Ithaca over the next few years. Most of these projects are asking for and receiving tax abatements. 

You are welcome to speak but you do not have to. But Legislators need to see all Tompkins County tax payers.

The Chairman of the IDA is Jim Dennis. Other members are Nate Shinagawa, Will Burbank, Martha Robertson, Chamber of Commerce President Jennifer Tavares, at large member Grace Chiang and City of Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick.

If you cannot attend, call your County Legislator and ask them to tell the IDA members to adopt the Local Labor policy for all IDA projects. If you do not know who your legislator is, go here:

http://geo.tompkins-co.org/SL/Viewer.html?Viewer=BOEMAP

Then go here to find out your Legislator's contact information:

http://tompkinscountyny.gov/files/legislature/members/2015%20Tompkins%20County%20Legislature.pdf

Rally with Verizon Workers - August 7, 2015 at noon

Our Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Sisters and Brothers are fighting for a fair contract at Verizon. Despite making $18 billion in profits in the last 18 months and top executives raking in $249 million over the last five years, Verizon is still insisting on slashing job security, health care, and retirement security, and refuses to engage in serious bargaining towards a fair contract.

RALLY WITH VERIZON WORKERS

Friday, August 7th

Noon

212 North Tioga Street, Ithaca

Please sign this petition in support of CWA and IBEW workers fighting for a fair contract at Verizon

Presentation on ways to reduce barriers to employment for those who were formerly incarcerated - Thursday May 28, 2015

                                                                                                            

      

Together, creating a dignified and just workplace and society

(ITHACA) Legal Assistance of Western New York, Inc., and the Tompkins County Workers’ Center, are co-facilitating a presentation and discussion focusing on ways to reduce barriers to employment for those who were formerly incarcerated. Please join us at the Tompkins County Library’s Borg Warner Room, 101 E. Green St, Ithaca, on May 28th from 4:30pm-6pm. All are welcome.

In most cases it is illegal to discriminate against employees and/or job applicants based on prior criminal conviction, and we hope that in sharing our knowledge we can help support successful reentry efforts in our community.

• 80% of employers now run criminal background checks before hiring job applicants;
• Excluding people with criminal convictions from employment and fair pay segregates and marginalizes our communities;
• In New York, people with criminal convictions are protected by law from employment discrimination, including: blanket policies against hiring people with felony or theft convictions.

New edition of the Tompkins County Workers' Center Workers' Rights Handbook is available - May 7, 2015

The updated third edition of the Workers' Rights Handbook published by the Tompkins County Workers' Center is now available - http://www.tcworkerscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Workers-Rights-Handbook-Click-to-Download-PDF.pdf   

Featuring a new forward by Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, the Workers' Rights Handbook is a compendium of New York State and Federal protections for working people.  It provides basic information on the rights of workers in New York State, sources for more in depth information and assistance and suggestions for how you can best voice your concerns and assert your rights in the workplace​.

It is not necessarily a substitute, however, for direct assistance from one of our Workers' Rights Advocates, and workers who feel they have been treated unfairly at work can always call 607-269-0409 or email TCWRH@TCWorkersCenter.org for help. 

There are chapters on:

• Wages and Hours 
• Termination 
• Personal Rights
  

• Health and Safety 
• Your Right to Form a Union 
• Family and Medical Leave 
• Discrimination 
• Sexual Harassment 
• Disability and Accommodation 
• Bullying 
• Teen Workers 
• Workers’ Compensation 
• NYS Disability 
• Unemployment Insurance 
• Prior Record 
• Immigrant Workers

INEQUALITY FOR ALL -- film by Robert Reich in Corning on Tuesday April 14th -- Free admission

In this passionate argument on behalf of the middle class, Robert Reich demonstrates the devastating impact of the widening income gap.

Tuesday April 14
The Palace Theater
17 W Market St. Corning, NY

 

FREE ADMISSION

6:30 PM Press conference in front of the theater
7:00 PM Documentary film
8:30 PM Panel discussion on income inequality

Sponsored by Citizen Action NY Southern Tier Chapter, Chemung County Democratic Committee/Young Dems, Public Employees Federation Retirees, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Organization of Women-Tompkins Co. Chapter, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Big Flats, Move to Amend