Justice for Jordan Miles Rally & March today at 2 PM at the corner of Tioga and Rosedale

I got this reminder from BPEP the other day. I'm just passing it along:

Saturday, September 18, 2010 @ 2 pm - Justice for Jordan Miles Rally & March
(The Corner of Tioga & Rosedale) Join the Alliance for Police Accountability to demand: Prosecution of Richard Ewing, David Sisak and Michael Saldutte! End police brutality and racial profiling! Community control of the police force! Click here for more details. For more information: bsfish27@aol.com or 412-628-5849

I did click for more details and I found this:

Justice for Jordan Miles
Issued by the Alliance for Police Accountability
For more information: bsfish27@aol.com or 412-628-5849
Rally & March
Sat, Sept. 18 2 pm
On January 12th, Jordan Miles was walking to his grandmother’s house when he was attacked by three plain-clothes police officers. The attack was brutal, and the three officers, Richard Ewing, David Sisak and Michael Saldutte, went so far as to rip the dreadlocks off of his head.
When the assault took place, Jordan was an honor student at CAPA high school. The attack was completely unprovoked, and it has become increasingly obvious that this beating was yet another incident of racial profiling by the police department.
The city government has done everything it can to make sure the guilty officers suffer no consequences for their actions. The only way that Ewing, Sisak and Saldutte will be held accountable is if we stand up and fight back by organizing a movement for justice. On Saturday, September 18th, march with us to show the Mayor, the Police Department, and every other politician and official that people across communities will not accept police brutality!
Join us to demand:
• Prosecution of Richard Ewing, David Sisak and Michael Saldutte!
• End police brutality and racial profiling!
• Community control of the police force!

Bangladeshi sweatshop workers are scheduled to speak before Pittsburgh City Council today.

Bangladeshi sweatshop workers will be speaking before City Council at 1 pm today and 7 pm tonight at the August Wilson Center. Slave labor is the dirty shameful secret behind a lot of multinational wealth. Its a secret that needs to be let out.

Here's the press release I received from Celeste Taylor and the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop movement:

Join us for the "Sweatshop Workers Speak Out" Speaking Tour

Featuring a Bangladeshi garment worker who sews uniforms and a representative of home based workers in Pakistan who stitch soccer balls, the tour aims to build solidarity between U.S. communities and workers that produce for our government. Each tour event will focus on action steps that are relevant for local sweatfree organizing, whether to help ignite a new campaign or bring an active campaign to the next level.

More info about the speakers and events is below and online at http://www.laborrights.org/events/sweatshop-workers-speak-out-speaking-tour.

April 27: Pittsburgh

Garment Workers Spotlight Sweatshop Working Conditions in Factories Sewing Pirates’ Apparel: 1:30pm Pittsburgh City Council Chambers, 5th Fl. City County Building

August Wilson Center at 7pm
980 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
Contact: Kenneth Miller, nosweatshopsbucco@yahoo.com, 412-867-9213 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 412-867-9213 end_of_the_skype_highlighting 412-867-9213
Sponsored by: Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance, Pittsburgh IWW, Black Political Empowerment Project, State Senator Jim Ferlo, William Robinson Consulting, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, National Labor Committee, Western PA Jobs with Justice, Freedom Unlimited, Steel Valley Printers/USW Local 3403

Kalpona Akter, former child factory worker, from Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity which was established in 2000 by garment workers and other workers struggling for their rights. The Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) is a non-profit, non-political women’s organization that works for the empowerment of working women, the rights of children, and the security of working families and communities. BCWS promotes workers’ negotiating power, gender equity, and social justice for the working class.

Zehra Bano is the General Secretary of the Home-Based Women Workers Federation of Pakistan. Zehra has been an outspoken leader in the fight for recognition of workers’ rights for women in Pakistan. She is in her mid-30s and has developed various training modules. Zehra has intimate knowledge of the plight of soccer ball workers especially related to home-based and stitching center workers.

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Check out the 2009 Sweatshop Hall of Shame!

Trina Tocco

Deputy Director

International Labor Rights Forum

Office: 202-347-4100 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 202-347-4100 end_of_the_skype_highlighting 202-347-4100 e x103 | Cell: 269-873-1000 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 269-873-1000 end_of_the_skype_highlighting 269-873-1000

Skype: trinatocco

trina.tocco@ilrf.org

BPEP is Looking for Election Protection Observers

ITEM: BPEP sends me some more stuff. Would you like to be an election observer?

The PA Primary Election on Tuesday is very important and there are several tightly contested races. We need your help to make sure everyone is playing by the rules, help voters trouble shoot obstacles and document voter experiences on Election Day. Whether you are one of the nearly 400 people who have been trained and participated in Non-Partisan Election Protection previously, or still needing to be trained, the voters need your time and diligence on Tuesday.

CLICK HERE to Sign Up Now for Our Non-Partisan Election Protection Program - May 19 PA Primary - Allegheny County

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You can volunteer as little as 3hrs. You can receive training on Thursday (5/14) at 5:30pm at the Hill House, Monday (5/18) at 6:30pm at Freedom Unlimited or on Election Day. We need attorneys, students, and members of faith groups, non-profits, unions and community organizations to help "Protect The Vote" on May 19, 2009 in Allegheny County. We are committed to protecting voters in "Each and Every Election" by informing voters of their rights, making sure that all votes are counted and every voice is heard.

Please print out our "Rolls to the Polls" flier. B-PEP is pleased to be partnering with the Community Intervention Supervision Program. They are donating their Vans and Drivers to ensure that those who need a ride to the polls will get one. Help us advertise this important program.

The B-PEP monthly meeting is TOMORROW (Thursday) at the Hill House and will be preceded by an Election Protection Training that will begin at 5:30pm.

A big thank you to Pittsburgh Hopes and Pittsburgh Cares for all of the Election Protection Volunteers they are bringing on board.

After you have completed your Election Day Volunteering (in the morning or the afternoon)… consider attending the Thomas Merton Center's New People Awards Dinner with other Election Protection Volunteers. Contact Bob Maddock 412-322-9275 for a seat at the Election Protect/Black Political Empowerment Project/Regional Equity Monitoring Project/Black and White Reunion table OR get information at Election Protection Headquarters on Election Day.

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- The Hill House is located at 1835 Centre Ave - Pittsburgh 15219- Freedom Unlimited is located at 2201 Wylie Ave - Pittsburgh 15219Chairman Tim Stevens 412-758-7898 ♦ Vice Chairperson Celeste Taylor 412-670-0937www.b-pep.net ♦ b-pepinfo@b-pep.net

BPEP Press Release on School Board Decision to Shut Down Schenley High School

And we get local Pittsburgh school board press releases. This one is from BPEP. I predict that the majority white members of the school board will outvote the minority black members of the school board but I could be wrong. I also used to think you couldn't elect a black guy president so what do I know. Here's Tim and Celeste:

Superintendent Mark Roosevelt and Board President, Bill Isler

Board Members: Heather Arnet, Mark Brentley, Theresa Colaizzi, Jean Fink,

Sherry Hazuda, Bill Isler, Floyd McCrea, Thomas Sumpter, Randall Taylor

Pittsburgh Public Schools Board of Education

341 South Bellefield Street

Pittsburgh , PA 15213

Dear Superintendent Roosevelt, and Board President Isler, Members: Heather Arnet, Mark Brentley, Theresa Colaizzi ,Jean Fink, Sherry Hazuda, Bill Isler, Floyd McCrea, Thomas Sumpter, Randall Taylor

For many years, B-PEP, the Black Political Empowerment Project has been very concerned about and involved in the issues of reforming Pittsburgh Public Schools so that all of our children, in particular African American children receive a high quality education. Our involvement in school reform became even more heightened as a result of the announcement on October 31, 2007 that called for the closing of Schenley due to students and staff being exposed to asbestos where conditions were continuing to deteriorate and the cost to remediate was prohibitive. Well since that announcement we have learned that there are other options that can allow Schenley to stay open without ignoring safety and weighing the cost with other proposed building renovations. On October 31^st we also learned of other high school reforms that didn’t come with as much details or public process that should have existed for such dramatic proposals to be successful.

Our position today has been influenced by attending many meetings, public hearings, information provided by the Superintendent, his staff and administration, Board members, PPS website, PA Department of Education, principals, teachers, students, parents, news media, concerned community members, in addition to independent building engineers, legal and finance experts. After weighing all of this, we respectfully request that board members Vote NO or table all the items regarding moving Schenley students separately and making expenditures to renovate other school buildings. We ask that you Vote NO or table all aspects of this proposed High School Reform plan and not move ahead with making any other expenditures until there is a comprehensive approach to programs that address the needs of all students associated with the 9 High Schools that failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress. Can you please share with us where you are with that? Maybe those plans are somewhere in the ever growing and changing documents connected to high school reform and we just don’t know where to look for it or maybe it was in the information you received between February 20^th and today?

We agree with you and understand the fierce urgency of now to ensure that ALL of our children receive a high quality education, especially the many that have been denied that opportunity for so long. It is good to see the A+ Schools plans for community forums on high school reform beginning Thursday. In addition to this we must focus some of our energy on figuring out a way to reach and teach our students where they are at NOW. It will be a shame to use the excuse that we were not able to make any improvements for many of our students over the next couple of years because we spent so much time devoted to only discussing not so well laid out plans.

Respectfully submitted,

Tim Stevens, Chairman and Celeste Taylor, Vice-Chairperson

"Moving From Complaint To Possibility,
From Planning To Implementation"
The Black Political Empowerment Project (B-PEP)
Tim Stevens, Chairman
Celeste Taylor, Vice Chairperson
Phone: 412-758-7898
Email: b-pepinfo@b-pep.net
Web Site: www.b-pep.net
c/o Hill House Association, 1835 Centre Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15219

Related: Everything you needed to know about "The Tyranny of the Majority". More about Lani Guinier here and she just published a new book and she's interviewed at Dollars and Sense about it.