SEIU Nurses Rally for Breaks, Safe Scheduling; Sen. Walsh Needs a Rest Period After Self-Own Nurses work demanding jobs. So it’s only natural that they demand safe scheduling, fair breaks, and adequate rest. But there’s always some blowhard who disagrees right? State Senator Walsh (R – Walla Walla) derided nurses as people who play cards,… Read more »
Dispatches
The latest on local issues, education on class struggle, chapter news, and actions.
The Hellhole – Week of 4/15
Dual bills protecting workers pass the state legislature Over 100,000 workers work in agriculture every year, producing enormous value in their communities and also $7 billion in revenue for captains of industry. Immigrants feed Washington. Since 2007, the H2-A program has grown over 1000% in Washington state and immigrants’ rights organizations have worked hard this… Read more »
The Hellhole – Week of 4/8
Sound Transit’s Lame Plan In his piece on how Sound Transit plans to change the downtown transit tunnel, Seattle Times reporter Mike Lindblom tries to imagine anything other than a “security station” going where the current Metro customer service station was. Bodegas, bathrooms, burgers, bistros. But instead, Sound Transit decided, we’re getting a security hub.… Read more »
The Hellhole – Week of 3/25
City Upzones The Seattle City Council up-zoned dozens of neighborhoods around mass transit hubs. Upzones provoke a lot of internal debate on the left because upzones, free of mitigating policy, often lead to gentrification. A new complex plopped on a block raises the market value. It is new and sleek while much of the city… Read more »
The Hellhole – Week of 3/18
Sound Transit CEO to privatize routes, bring in scabs Privatization leads to worse service and outcomes. This week Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff suggested privatizing a bus route and replacing union jobs with low-bid scabs. What’s good for the goose is not good for the gander though, as Rogoff haggled an 11 percent pay increase… Read more »
The Hellhole – Week of 3/11
Northwest Detention Center Resistance celebrates five years of fighting for immigrant rights This past Sunday in Tacoma, Northwest Detention Center Resistance celebrated their 5th anniversary of fighting for and as people surviving unjust detainment and slavery-like conditions at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC). NWDCR will also change their name to La Resistencia. The event featured… Read more »
Protected: 3.9.2019 Local Council Minutes
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
The Hellhole – Week 3/4
Mayor Durkan tried to appoint a public official who oversaw the largest death of unhoused Seattleites in history without a debate Mayor Durkan appointed yet another public official without consulting the public. Jason Johnson had served as interim head of Human Services for the city since March last year. The record number of unhoused deaths… Read more »
The Hellhole – Week of 2/25
Washington teachers fought high stakes testing. Last Friday, they won. High stakes testing and “No Child Left Behind” privatization ravaged public education under Bush, Obama, and Trump. These tests have gone from marginal assessment to dominating the curriculum (and often the bonus structure) during the year. These tests are neither reliable nor valid for assessing… Read more »
The Hellhole – Week of 2/18
UW right-wing vandalizes monument to those who fought fascism in Spain (and many who died in the Holocaust) Fascists recognize how popular socialist policies are. It frightens them. Reactionaries at the University of Washington defaced a memorial to the Spanish Civil War, a struggle where anarchists and communists bravely fought dictator Franco’s rise to power… Read more »
The Hellhole – Week of 2/11
Democrats, Republicans Giving Trump Billions Emergency or Not People are pretending that sarcastic claps at the State of the Union signal resistance to Trump’s agenda, but Democrats in Congress are folding on a tentative deal to keep the government open. The key to it is handing billions over for parts of the wall (euphemistically a… Read more »
The Hellhole – Week of 2/4
Contractors May Never Recover from the Shutdown. We asked one government contractor about the shutdown and they weighed in: Contractors are rarely, if ever, given back pay after a shutdown, and this one can’t be blamed on Trump. It’s due to the way that contractors are paid and how funding is allocated (and how the… Read more »