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Showing posts from December, 2012

Labor Gives Management Bag of Coal at La Playa Carmel Holiday Workers Rally

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As the holiday season hit full force at the shopping/vacation destination of Carmel by the Sea, former La Playa Hotel workers continued to remain hopeful that some of those in attendance at a labor rally at the hotel on December 20 would receive back the jobs that they lost over a year ago. Since the hotel re-opened over the summer, after a costly remodeling job initiated by its new owner, only three of the former 113 workers have been re-hired. At the holiday-themed rally there was some buzz around the idea that La Playa Carmel may soon be looking to hire new workers in its housekeeping department. Former workers have held demonstrations at the hotel for over a year now. One worker who spoke at the holiday rally had been a housekeeper at La Playa for 30 years until she lost her job when the hotel was shutdown and sold in late 2011. At the rally, workers and community members sang classic Christmas carols that were updated for the labor theme and an organizer with ...

On Being Jewish and Supporting Palestinians

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Sara Smith speaks at a rally at UC Santa Cruz on November 27, 2012 opposing the recent violence that has occurred against Palestinians in Gaza by Israel. Smith is presently a teaching assistant for a UCSC course on the civil rights movement, and she declared at the beginning of her speech, "I am Jewish and I stand with the people of Palestine, I am also a queer Jew...and I stand with the queer people of Palestine." On November 27, approximately 75 UC Santa Cruz students attended a rally held at Quarry Plaza to speak out against the recent violence against Palestinians in Gaza by the state of Israel. Students described the recent attacks as an, "overwhelmingly one-sided aggression on the part of the Israeli state, supported centrally by the U.S. government, and part of a long, continuing history of Israel's oppression of Palestine." Israel's recent aggression, which occurred over a seven day period, ended with the deaths of 5 Israelis a...