Welcome to Olympia, the walkers have arrived, and word is they will be fasting this week, in hopes of impressing upon the legislature the need for moral solutions, and human rights.

Why We Walk - Robbie Stern , more videos available from the SEIU youtube account

plus bonus Bernie Sanders "Robinhood in Reverse" video below the break:

Stop the Cutting! Protect our economic future!

Thursday 17 March 2011
Olympia!

More photos here

Egypt, Wisconsin, Washington! Enough is enough! No more business as usual! Government institutions—public institutions—need to serve the public interest, not private and special interests! Common interests, like jobs for all and a healthy environment with stable ecosystems, go first. Special interests, like private profit, last! Toward a popular uprising of resistance to unjust and immoral policies! Nonviolent democratic revolution!

Saturday 26 March 2011, Olympia Washington Worker Solidarity Rally and Rally for the American Dream

This rally was to demonstrate solidarity with union workers in Wisconsin, many of whom are currently defending against an aggressive assault by special interests to destroy the right to collective contract bargaining. Many people believe there is an effort by private companies to bankrupt the public sector, in order to take-over public insititutions.

Another rally at WA State Gov't HQ in Olympia is planned for next week: Thursday 17 March, Noon, on the steps of the Legislative Building. For more information about that from fuse, here.

update 6: I have removed previously posted update notes. And I would like to acknowledge the many groups involved in making this event happen, including many labor unions as well as fuse and MoveOn Washington.

Saturday, 26 February, 2011, Olympia—Mark Forseth of Renton, member of NATCA (Airtraffic Controllers) and Brian Brandt of Tacoma, both former Wisconsinites, stand on the steps of the Washington State Capitol Legislative Building to express solidarity with workers.

I also had an opportunity to talk with a few Tea Party people, and it was interesting. The ones I talked with were quite unaware of the political activities of Koch industries and their relationship, for example, with Governor Walker.

From Washington State Capitol Campus Rally, Olympia, Saturday 26 February 2011

More photos and videos below the fold

The Honduras National Front is growing very powerful, and they are determined to re-mold Honduras’ undemocratic constitution through a democratic Constituent Assembly, a demand that most Hondurans support. To gain U.S. labor support, the National Front is sending labor leader Jose Baquedano on a west coast speaking tour.

U.S. workers have a powerful interest to see that democracy is restored in Honduras. Honduras, along with Haiti and Nicaragua, is used to depress the wages of all countries in the hemisphere, since corporations anywhere can always threaten to flee to these low wage nations. Military coups are a common tactic that the U.S. government employs in other countries to suppress wages, making the hemisphere more "business friendly.”

The more U.S. workers are educated about this dynamic, the less freely is the U.S. government able to act to repress working-class movements abroad. You can support the social movement in Honduras by attending the Olympia speaking event of Jose Baquedano, who is the official representative of the National Resistance Front. Baquedano is also Secretary General of the United Workers Federation of Honduras (CUTH), representing 250,000 urban and rural workers. Thanks to Shamus Cooke for writing the above for the Worker's Compass.

Friday, JANUARY 22, 2009 12:30, Evergreen, Lecture Hall 1

Saturday, JANUARY 23, 2009 5pm, Olympia Unitarian Universalist Church, 2300 East End St. NW,

An injury to one is an injury to all." IWW slogan

Informational picket calls for return of union president and return of mail operations to Olympia.

Olympia, WA November 17, 2008.

The Olympia local of the American Postal Workers Union held an informational picket on Monday, November 17, 2008 from 7 AM to 9 AM, 12 to 1 PM, and 4 to 5 PM at the Olympia downtown post office located at 900 Jefferson Street in Olympia, Washington.

The informational picket was to call for the Postal Service to bring fired union president Clint Burelson back to work and to bring the outgoing mail operations back to Olympia.

The Postal Service recently fired local union president Clint Burelson for his union activities and major role as a whistleblower in exposing the fact that mail consolidations would reduce service and would not save money. Since then, mail consolidations all across the country have been stopped once communities have learned the truth about mail consolidation.

Burelson is a strong advocate for workers in the post office and management is firing him for performing his duties as a union representative. Despite many grievance settlements signed by the Postal Service in which they agreed to cease and desist in discriminating against Burelson for his union activities, management continues to discriminate against him.

The Postal Service recently admitted in their review of the consolidation that they have lost $1.5 million in six months as a result of the transfer of outgoing mail operations from Olympia to Tacoma. The Postal Service had previously claimed that the transfer of the mail to Tacoma would save the Postal Service $1.2 million. The Postal Service therefore made at least a $2.7 million mistake in judgment.

For Desecration of the American Way of Life.

A rat is a contractor that does not pay all of its employees the Area Standard Wages, including either providing or making payments for family health care and pension benefits. Businesses that choose this breed of contractor are guilty as well. When contractors underpay their workers, often the rest of pick up the difference when we pay our taxes.

Shame on GVA/Kidder Mathews for contributing to the erosion of Area Standards for area carpenter craft workers. The Pacific NW Regional Council of Carpenters has a labor dispute with Davis Schueller Inc. performing work in the Vance Building in Seattle. Davis Schueller Inc. does not meet area labor standards, including providing or fully paying for family health care and pension for all of its carpenter craft employees.

Read more...

The Longshore Caucus (like a Convention) adjourned today, Friday Feb. 8 but not before passing an antiwar resolution to shutdown all U.S. West Coast ports with a stop work meeting on May 1, 2008 for 8 hours to protest the Democrats' and Republicans' continuing to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The resolution from Local 10 encountered vigorous debate. In the end the overwhelming consensus to take dock action to stop the war prevailed. As the President of Local 34 Richard Cavalli stated this resolution follows ILWU Local 10 and 34's successful Labor Conference to Stop the War held in San Francisco Oct. 20, 2007, as reported in the ILWU's newspaper, The Dispatcher.