UPDATE: GEO Wins Strike After Two Days of Picketing! | VIDEO: GEO Strike - start to finish
Despite the rain and cold, hundreds showed up on Monday, November 16, 2009 to join picket lines thrown up around several buildings on the quad at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After negotiations broke down over the weekend, the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) called for a strike. They have been without a contract for more than three months.
On the announcement Wednesday that Lou Dobbs will leave his post as a longtime anchor on CNN, Roberto Lovato of BastaDobbs.com said, “Lou Dobbs – who has a long record of spreading lies and conspiracy theories about immigrants and Latinos – does not belong on the 'Most Trusted Name in News.'" "We are thrilled that Dobbs no longer has this legitimate platform from which to incite fear and hate."
The BastaDobbs.com campaign, a national Latino-led coalition, was launched in mid-September, after Dobbs broadcast his radio show from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) conference, founded by white nationalist John Tanton. FAIR is designated as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Forty-five anti-immigration activists held a small rally outside the state capitol on Saturday. Counter-protest from members of Anti-Racist Action, Bash Back, the Minnesota Immigrants' Rights Action Coalition and others was frequent, vigorous and hilarious. ("America is not for Russians! America is not for Germans! Europeans go home!")
Protesters chanting “Hey Obama let mama marry mama” and “LGBT we demand equality” gathered in front of the Federal Building on November 4 to condemn actions in the nearby state of Maine. Earlier in the year, courts in Maine determined that marriage was a civil right under the state's constitution and extended that right to all couples. Those rights were then taken away by a close ballot referendum on November 3. The protest was organized by the Civil Rights Front and participants included the Gay Alliance, Pride At Work, International Socialist Organization and Students For A Democratic Society. Read more; click here!