"Art Perlo Presente" Launches on May Day in Solidarity with Workers' Rights and Peace

In celebration of May Day, a website that promises to contribute to building working class power will be launched by the Connecticut People's World on Sunday May 1 at 6:30 pm at the New Haven Peoples Center, 37 Howe Street and live streamed at https://www.facebook.com/events/504174641206708 .

“Art Perlo Presente – Carrying the Legacy Forward – People, Peace and Planet before Profits,” will feature the writings, videos, organizing, recipes, photos and tributes to Art Perlo who passed away on December 18, 2021.

At a time when all democratic rights are under attack and the future of the planet hangs in the balance, Art's writings over decades as an activist and Marxist economist provide a valuable resource and guide to building unity in the multi-racial working class struggles for a just society.

The writings and videos reflect his participation in organizing Local 34 Unite Here clerical and technical workers union at Yale, his consistent leadership in the community for equity and to tax the rich, and in the Connecticut Communist Party and nationally for an end to exploitation, racism and war..

The International Workers Day event will feature clips from three videos on the website: the Black History Youth March dedicated to Art, the 30^th anniversary of Local 34 and May Day Around the World 2021 which Art produced.

The gathering will stand in solidarity with current struggles of essential workers for a living wage and fair scheduling, graduate teachers demanding union recognition at Yale, demands for immigrant workers rights, and in celebration of victories won by state workers (SEBAC) and Amazon workers in Staten Island.

Following the website launch, participants will view “United to Fightback,” the People's World national May Day celebration including music and international solidarity messages.

The event will kick off organizing for the June 18 Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls led by Rev William Barber.

The national march will demand an end to poverty and call for investments in human needs, racial justice, mitigation of climate change and an end to the war economy..

To make reservations on the Peoples Center bus contact peoplescenter@pobox.com or leave a message at 203-624-8664.

EARTH DAY COMMENTARY

by Len Yannielli

In the earlier part of the new millennium, Connecticut state officials pushed the slogan “20 for 2020”. The idea was that our state would have 20% renewable energy generating electricity by the year 2020. It’s 2022. Connecticut has 2.5% of its electricity generated by renewable energy, mostly solar. How can this be?

It turns out that the reason is “inconvenient” to the profit system that guides and funds their political lives. However, there is a revolutionary concept that can help explain this inconvenient truth.

It was an immigrant woman from the Caribbean that introduced the concept of the triple oppression of African American women. Claudia Jones explained this oppression at the intersection of gender, race, and class.

So what does that have to do with fossil fuels and politics? As it turns out – plenty!

We all know what an intersection is on our roads. So Jones, a trade unionist and Communist operating in the Cold War years of the 1950s, expanded the intersection concept to explain the triple oppression of African American women.

It doesn’t stop there. One of the key tests of a viable theory is can it have wider application? In other words, is it expansive? As it turns out, Jones’s concept of intersectionality is just that.

Connecticut’s current mix of electrical generation is 56% natural (methane) gas, 38 % nuclear and 2.5% renewables. The former is a major contributor to climate change. Nuclear dangers were revealed to the world at Chernobyl (Soviet Union) and Fukushima (Japan).

So the mixture of fossil fuel profits and politics has proven toxic to both our collective health and politics in favor of the profit orgy.

Now we are seeing this toxic mix playing out with the war in the Ukraine. One of the reasons behind this imperialist war is who will control the fossil fuel market in Europe.

• Get the Ct People’s World out at the grassroots this Earth Day weekend to help explain this revolutionary truth.

• Support off-shore wind projects in New London and Bridgeport tied to union jobs and hiring people of color, and in this legislative session Senate Bill 10, to put into law a commitment for Connecticut to transition to a zero-carbon electricity supply by 2040.

Nursing Home Care Providers at Five Hartford-Area Facilities Announce Strike Vote, Deliver Strike Notices for Unfair Labor Practices

Nursing home care providers with 1199NE SEIU announced the delivery of Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike notices at 5 Hartford-area nursing home facilities Tuesday. After an overwhelming vote in favor of the work stoppage, the healthcare providers plan to go on a ULP strike April 22 at 6:00 am. With the ULP strike vote announcement, workers discussed how they came together and voted to go on a ULP strike amid poor conditions and unfair labor practices across the faci

 

“We’ve been told for two years that we’re essential, yet I still can’t pay my bills or afford healthcare with the low wages I’m being paid,” said Nadine Lawrence, a CNA at Bloomfield Health Care Center. “On top of that, most of the Hartford nursing home providers like me are Black and brown, and we continue to show up to care for our residents even amid racial profiling and discrimination by management. I’m at my breaking point. It’s time for Bloomfield to step up to the plate and meet the minimum standard that every care provider deserves: livable wages, affordable healthcare, a pension they can rely on, overtime and measures to address racial injustice.”

 

The facilities include three owned by National Health Care Associates—Bloomfield Health Care Center, Hebrew Center for Health & Rehabilitation, Maple View Health and Rehabilitation Center—and two others, Avery Heights Senior Living and Windsor Health and Rehabilitation Center. More than 400 nursing home workers are set to go on a ULP strike across the five homes. 

 

“I have cared for residents at Windsor Rehabilitation for 21 years yet I don't even make $20.00 an hour,” said Yvonne Foster, a CNA at Windsor Rehabilitation. “I don't have a retirement account or health insurance that I can afford, and there is no room for growth at my facility. I stand together with my co-workers to strike.”

 

People providing care in these nursing homes have a strong history of taking action to demand better. Nursing home care providers at Avery Heights Senior Living sustained a two and a half year strike in the early 2000s, which is believed to be the longest nursing home worker strike in U.S. history. And recently, workers at all three homes owned by National Health Care Associates staged a bold action in March to demand liveable wages and affordable benefits that allow them to support their families.

 

In 2021, nursing home workers at 53 nursing homes across Connecticut staged historic strike campaigns to highlight the need to improve long-term care for patients and providers alike. Their bold action paid off, and these workers are now on a pathway to $20 per hour minimum wage for CNAs, increases in retirement and pension contributions, affordable healthcare, and measures to address racial discrimination on the job and in their communities. 

 

But many others who provide care in nursing homes—including the workers at the five Hartford-area facilities named in the ULP strike notices—have yet to achieve the same gains. As the workers at these five facilities are entering the third year as essential workers during the pandemic, they are demanding a $20 per hour minimum wage for CNA's, fair pension plans, affordable healthcare, measures to address the discrimination, and resolution to their employers’ illegal activities.

Yankee Institute's Right-Wing, Anti-Worker Funding and Policies Denounced

Decrying the anti-worker and divisive role of Yankee Institute over 40 years, Rob Baril president of 1199 NE SEIU declared that the policies and lobbying by the corporate think tank have hurt working people and the state of Connecticut. Giving a practical example, he cited the fact that while one of two women of color make less than $15 an hour, the Yankee Institute lobbied against raising the minimum wage, paid family leave and an end to captive audience meetings.

“When these women joined the union they moved into livable wages and benefits toward the American Dream,” said Baril adding that “the Yankee Institute, funded by billionaires pushing right-wing policy across the country, should not be considered reputable.”.

His remarks opened a press conference organized by the Recovery for All coalition, announcing two new reports examining Yankee Institute policies and funding sources.

Maggie Corser, senior research analyst at the Center for Popular Democracy said Yankee Institute has received $3.2 million from Donors Capital Fund and Donors Trust which have given thousands of grants to extreme right organizations around the country including hate groups.

While portraying themselves as local, she said, they are an affiliate of State Policy Network a nationally funded network connected to ALEC that develops anti-worker legislation across the country.

“Yankee Institute advances the Koch brothers agenda to impose minority views on the majority,” said Liz Dupont-Diehl representing the Connecticut Citizens Action Group. “They spread misinformation and divide working families.”

The first report details the Yankee Institute’s advocacy for austerity policies that harm working families in Connecticut, especially working families of color, and widen the state’s extreme inequalities, pursuing policies “ to slash the taxes paid by the state’s wealthiest individuals and corporations, while cutting services for working people.”

Asked to elaborate on the impact of Yankee Institute, Baril replied, “People who earn $28,000 or less pay a 24 % tax rate.  The wealthiest who earn $8.2 million plus pay a 6% tax rate.  As long as working people Black, brown and white, continue to struggle for wages, education, housing, health care and every social need we say Yankee Institute has too much impact.”

Rep. Robyn Porter, co-chair of the Labor Committee, added that “billionaires made a trillion more in wealth in the past two years at the same time that caregivers' children are not getting enough to eat because they could not afford food and 100,000 are not caught up on rent.”

 

Porter emphasized, “Yankee Institute is only successful because they have the money to push their austerity message. Connecticut needs a real recovery for all to realize the American Dream not an American Nightmare.”

The reports are available at: https://www.recoveryforallct.com/reports