Invite To Chicago Meeting to Plan a Demo at AFL-CIO Natl. Convention!

[Jahness]

Invite To Chicago Meeting to Plan a Demo at AFL-CIO Natl. Convention!

Please Forward This Email To Organizers in Chicago Area!

We are sending this email to invite you to the 1st meeting of a Chicago Area Organizing Group to build a demonstration at the AFL-CIO National Convention in Chicago on July 24 or 25, 2005. Through this demonstration, and other possible activities during the week of the AFL-CIO Convention, we seek to make our contribution to the struggle to "Build Unity and Trust Among Workers Worldwide."

1st Meeting of the Chicago Area Working Group

Date: May 10, 2005Time: 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Place: Decima Musa, 1901 South Loomis, Chicago, Illinois

RSVP: Bob Brown at paroots02@yahoo.com and Tom Baker at nscchicago@igc.org.

Proposed Agenda:

Part 1: Education and Information:

Opening, Introductions, Discussion and Ratification of Agenda.
Report and Discussion on the Status of the Venezuelan Revolution, presented by a Representative of the Venezuelan Consulate in Chicago.
Report and Discussion on the Role of the AFL-CIO in the U.S. efforts to destabilize and overthrow the Governments of :
Venezuela and Chile, presented by Fred Hirsch, Vice President of Plumbers and Fitters Local 393 in San Jose, California (invited).
Haiti, presented by Atty. Lionel Jean-Baptiste, Representative of the Haitian Community in Chicago, Member of the City Council in Evanston, and Lead Attorney for the 9 Reparations Lawsuits.
Zimbabwe, presented by Rasheida Weaver, Representative of the Zimbabwe Solidarity Committee.


Part 2: Working Group

Logistics and Scenario for the demonstration and actions at the AFL-CIO Convention.
Outreach, Networking, Mobilization, Media, Fundraising, etc.
Organizing the 2nd Working Group Meeting.
About The Demonstration At The AFL-CIO National Convention:

The Latin America Solidarity Coalition (LASC) is organizing a demonstration on July 24 or 25, 2005 at the AFL-CIO National Convention in Chicago, Illinois to raise its concerns about the AFL-CIO’s American Center for International Solidarity (ACILS, a.k.a. Solidarity Center) taking US government money from the National Endowment for Democracy and US Agency for International Development to destabilize and overthrow the government of Venezuela, and other governments in Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Africa.

Latin American Solidarity Committee member organizations include Creative Commotion: Voices for Social Change; CUSLAR; Chicagoans for a Peaceful Colombia; Coordinating Committee of Women Peasants of the Tropics - Chapare of Cochabamba, Bolivia) and the Bolivian National Peasant Women's Movement Bartolina Sisa; Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador; Committee to Free Lori Berenson; Enough Is Enough; The Friends of the MST; Global Exchange; Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA; Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas; Mexico Solidarity Network; Nicaragua Network; Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala; No War On Cuba Movement; Pan-African Roots; Rights Action and the School of the Americas Watch.

LASC is mailing the BUILD UNITY AND TRUST resolution, which was passed by the 2 million-member California State Labor Federation, the South Bay Central Labor Council, the Monterey Bay Labor Council, and Plumbers and Fitters 393, to 5,000 labor unions in the United States in advance of the AFL-CIO Convention to help build momentum to get the resolution on the agenda at the Convention. Among other things, the resolution calls for ACILS to open its books on past abuses by the Solidarity Center and its predecessor the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) in the coup against President Allende in Chile in 1973, the recent failed coup against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and its’ contacts with the Venezuelan opposition, and similar activities in Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Africa.

While no final decision have been made about the demonstration, the following scenario has been proposed:

(1) Sunday, July 24, 2005

(a) Leafleting & Networking – Afternoon and/or Evening at Rank-and-File Meeting, hotels, etc.

(b) Possible demonstration or actions geared to delegates, media and demonstrators.

(c) Hospitality for out-of-town demonstrators.

(2) Monday, July 25, 2005

(a) Press Conference

(b) Leafleting & Tabling at 6 sites on Navy Pier from 9:00 am to 10:00 pm (25 to 50 people per day in shifts)

(c) 25 to 50-person or larger Picket-line on the South Sidewalk of Navy Pier (Time TBA)

(d) 250 to 500-Person or larger Rally at the Gateway Park entrance to Navy Pier (Time TBA)

(3) Tuesday to Friday, July 26-30, 2005 (Optional depending on Human Resources)

(a) Leafleting & Tabling at 6 sites on Navy Pier from 9:00 am to 10:00 pm (25 to 50 people per day in shifts)

(b) 25 to 50 person or larger Picket-line on the South Sidewalk of Navy Pier (Time TBA)

You Can Help By:

Endorsing, helping build and participating in the demonstration at the AFL-CIO Convention.

Forwarding this email and far as you can, especially to organizers in the Chicago area.

Attending and participating in the 1st meeting of the Chicago Area Working Group.

RSVP: Bob Brown at paroots02@yahoo.com and Tom Baker at nscchicago@igc.org.

SEE YOU ON MAY 10, 2005!

Stay Strong
Working For The People!
Kwakou