For Immediate Release: March 15, 2016
Local Contact: Keith Brunner, Vermont Workers’ Center, (802) 363-9615
Expert Contact: Jeff Conant, Friends of the Earth US, (510) 900-0016, jconant@foe.org
Economic inequality has reached dramatic levels not seen since the Great Depression — yet with climate change, we face potentially insurmountable environmental challenges in the decades ahead too. Many of us deal with these systemic problems every day — either directly or indirectly — and our struggles are often pitted against each other. An old adage says that in times like these, we must not mourn, but get organized. Join us for these upcoming events — come talk to your neighbors about the impacts of wealth inequality on families and communities.
(This OpEd by VWC Vice President Avery Book was published in the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, VTDigger, Burlington Free Press, and Rutland Herald)
Note: This OpEd by Brattleboro resident and VWC field organizer Shela Linton was published today in the Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus. Linton and Senowa Mize-Fox of Burlington are representing the Vermont Workers' Center at the UN COP21 climate negotiations in Paris, as part of the It Takes Roots to Weather the Storm delegation.
Press Release: 1 December 2015
Contact: Keith Brunner, Vermont Workers’ Center, 802-363-9615
Vermont Workers’ Center leaders join grassroots delegation at Paris climate talks calling for “system change, not climate change”
Note: This article by VWC CoCo member Jonathan Kissam and Put People First! PA member Karim Sariahmed was originally published on the Healthcare is a Human Right Collaborative site.
Organizing our Whole Selves: Reflections on the 2015 Single Payer Strategy Conference
On Thursday evening, VWC member Meg Cline read the following statement at a press conference in Burlington expressing solidarity with Syrian refugees. Meg is a parent organizing to reinstate staff and services at the VNA Family Room in the Old North End (Click here for more info).
Last Thursday evening, two young women of color in Burlington were targeted by a person or people affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, who delivered fliers to their doors. These fliers are only the latest incident in an ongoing escalation of racist acts aimed at people of color in our community, and part of a national rise in state and vigilante violence towards communities of color.
Run or walk a 5K Halloween Race to “Exercise Your Rights” with the new Co-Directors of the Vermont Workers’ Center on Saturday, October 31st at 9AM in downtown Montpelier. Kate Kanelstein, Matt McGrath, and Megan Sheehan have signed up to run together to raise money for the Vermont Workers' Center — and have tons of fun along the way… expect some wild costumes!
Yesterday, VWC President Ellen Schwartz gave this speech at the 2015 Burlington Labor Day celebration:
Twelve years before President Grover Cleveland established the Labor Day holiday, Matthew Maguire -- a machinists’ union leader and socialist from Paterson NJ and one of the organizers of the Central Labor Union of NY -- proposed a “Mammoth Festival, Parade, and Pic-Nic.”