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Read more about the event here: https://lcipcampaign.org/2019/11/25/break-the-grip-of-the-two-party-system-conference/
Join us for this two-fold conference to be held on Saturday, December 7. The first session, from 11 a.m. till 4 p.m with a luncheon, will take place at the Middleburg Heights Branch of the Cuyahoga County Library, located at 16699 Bagley Road' in Middleburg Heights, Ohio. It will be followed by a dinner session with speakers from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Brew Garden,18590 Bagley Road also in Middleburg Heights. (Both locations are located five minutes from Cleveland Hopkins Airport and the I-71 and Ohio Turnpike interchange.)
In addition to the main question of an independent political party, the topics for deliberation will include: (1) Medicare for All; (2) endless regime change wars and decimating sanctions vs. international working class solidarity; and (3) forced migration and deportation.
Speakers (list still in formation) include:
Margaret Flowers, MD Co-chair Green Party US
Dan Kovalik, labor and human rights lawyer, author, and radio and TV commentator
Robert Fitrakis, political science professor, investigative journalist, author and civil rights lawyer
Baldemar Velasquez, President of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC, AFL-CIO)
Nnamdi Lumumba, Representative, Ujima People's Progress Party
Kevin Zeese public interest attorney who co-directs PopularResistance.org
Alan Benjamin, Editorial Board member, The Organizer newspaper, San Francisco, CA
Chrissy Stonebraker-Martínez, Co-Coordinator, InterReligious Task Force on Central America
Don Bryant, Board Member, Cleveland Peace Action
About the conference: With inequality skyrocketing, health care and student debt mounting, climate change roiling the planet, civil and human rights under assault, and wages and benefits evaporating, a majority in the U.S. are now calling for a major new political party. According to a recent Gallup poll, a majority. (57%) "say there is a need for a third major political party." Virtually three-quarters of independents (72%) "support a third major political party>" Source: Gallup Headlines, July 19, 2019, "Majority in the U.S. Still Say a Third Party is Needed."
Injustice Toward Immigrants: The George W. Bush administration fostered a climate of fear and loathing for immigrants, particularly Muslim-Americans, in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Unconstitutional policies — a regime of disappearances and torture, special registration of men from Muslim-majority nations, and expanded use of Guantanamo Bay Prison — were implemented under Bush. Fear in our nation allowed the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Barack Obama continued all these policies and earned the name “Deporter-in-Chief.” Guantanamo is still holding 40 men indefinitely. Now under Trump, asylum seekers, immigrants and Jewish and Muslim-Americans are more predominately facing discrimination and the wrath and violence of hate groups.
Cleveland connection: This conference is being organized in part as tribute to the 1996 Labor Party Convention, also held in Cleveland, which was attended by 1400 delegates from 9 international unions, over 300 local unions and state and regional federations, numerous community organizations and 40 Labor Party Advocates chapters. For a pictorial report about the 1996 Convention, click on link: http://archive.ilwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/19960626.pdf
Sponsored by: The Labor Education & Arts Project (LEAP) and Labor Fightback Network (LFN) in cooperation with Labor and Community for an Independent Party (LCIP), a nationwide network of labor and community activists. On the web at: https://lcipcampaign.org/
Donations, gratefully received, may be sent to: LEAP, P.O. Box 5334, Cleveland, OH 44101 and made payable to same. Alternatively, a donate button appears on our Labor Education & Arts Project social media page: https://www.facebook.com/LaborEducation/.
Contributions are tax deductible in accordance with Section 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Code. For donations of $25 and above, we will gladly send you, postage prepaid, copies of our LaborFest booklets: “Eugene Debs Centennial” and “A Tribute to the IWW a.k.a. The Wobblies.” If you choose to donate via the donate button on our Facebook page, please send your name and return address to newdeallaborart@gmail.com.
Masthead graphic is a detail of a poster by Ben Shahn, "Break Reaction's Grip," 1944. Done for the CIO unions
Read more about the event here: https://lcipcampaign.org/2019/11/25/break-the-grip-of-the-two-party-system-conference/
