King Fuji farmworkers strike!
Workers at King Fuji have staged strikes for two days now. In an interview with KUNW Univision’s Maria Cortez, Edgar Franks spoke to the mistreatment and conditions of the workers and that “no one wants to strike but this was the only option left by the company.” Workers presented a list of demands to the company yesterday, including ending wage theft”. Management promised to answer them by 3:00 PM Pacific on June 13. Management responded that they would respond next week to break the strike.
The campesinos have asked supporters that, if you can’t show up to direct actions in Richland, to contact Penny Morgan and Natan Cortez at Fuji’s offices and ask they negotiate in good faith with workers, no reprisals, and not to blacklist anyone. Fuji’s main office line is (509) 932-4336.
ICE reopens another Concentration Camp
ICE and CBP brutality comes up a lot in the Hellhole. From Amazon providing the tech behind ICE to the attempted coverup of the death of hunger striker Amar Mergensana we’re doubling down on our calls to ABOLISH ICE. This week it was reported that the former concentration camp at Fort Sill in Oklahoma will hold migrant children. Again. The thing about camps like the kind ICE runs to detain immigrants is that some were first used during the Trail of Tears and in dispossessing generations of indigenous and first nations people.
The NWDC in Tacoma is a essentially a forced labor camp located on a superfund site in which asylum seekers and people not convicted of any crime (reminder: being undocumented is not a crime) are forced to work for as little as a dollar a day.
We cannot stress what is happening enough. Caged children, after being ripped apart from their families, are being subjected to cruelty. Toddlers are being left to die alone of dehydration. Children are being injected against their will with unknown psychiatric drugs and subject to unthinkable trauma that will last decades.
The fact is that an astonishing amount of terror is happening on our doorsteps. We don’t have to watch the horrifying mistakes of the past happen all over again.
Abolish crimes of poverty.
Seattle, like the rest of late capitalism, isn’t doing well. Empty luxury apartments and near-record numbers of people unhoused. Rising median income but neither in pace with cost increase, nor paced with other industries. Tech lords tithe as they squash the actuality of housing through taxing stolen wealth workers created. This inequality has exacerbated the criminalization of poverty.
“Seattle is dying” masks just how much Seattle kills its poor, especially at the intersection of race, gender, and immigration status.
There is a way. We must build ample public and social housing, esp. in the urban core. We must build frequent, convenient mass transit. We must create public daycares. Seize the economy! Build a society for the many, not the rich, ignoble few.
G.O.L.F. (Get Our Luxury-communism, Fam)
Seattle DSA-endorsed City Council candidate Shaun Scott and Share the City’s Laura Loe in their individual capacity went on KUOW to talk about the city’s four public golf courses or 528 acres. They generously debated Q13 Fox’s Sports Director. What could happen?
As Laura notes, why aren’t the people around the 168 acre golf course near Jackson asked how to utilize land? Shaun Scott agrees that there’s a false choice: we can have both amazing, LEED-certified public and social housing while also preserving green spaces including a golf course of two. We can do both but it’s a question of political priorities. Do we prioritize life? Listen here.
Note: The Seattle Hellhole represents the views of its writers and does not represent official positions of Seattle DSA at large. Its writers are a collective working on independent pieces, editing, and design to deliver this each week. If you want to volunteer, join us in #wg_comms_design on Slack or email [email protected]