I don't get to post often anymore. Mostly, it's the darn Master's Degree, just months away now for my fingers to grasp. Today, I can't help but take my lunch time to point out something pretty freaking disturbing. In The Hill today, there's a post up on a letter from the AFL-CIO to Congress on the possible Colombian Free Trade Agreement. The crux of the letter is this:

Included with the letter was a list of names of the 22 union leaders who have been killed in Colombia, 15 of those after the United States agreed to a labor action plan with the South American country in April to improve its labor rights record, according to the AFL-CIO. Labor has long vehemently opposed a trade deal with Colombia because of its record of violence against union activists.

Colombia kills union activists. And this, is somehow, reason to celebrate in the comments section on The Hill

Could we get them to do it here? There are more than enough union thug bosses already. BY David on 09/27/2011 at 10:52

yeah, I believe this guy is a CEO, right:

I serve as President of a major corporation in the U.S. All these people want to do is create trouble for us. I look forward to the day we have a government that is sympathetic to the job creators and allow us to handle the unions like Columbia has done.BY RG Brewer on 09/27/2011 at 11:08

I wonder if those killing the labor slugs in Colombia can outsource that work here.BY canuck on 09/26/2011 at 19:00

There are worse comments. They are mostly a jumble of thinly veiled threats against union activists from folks who use pithy comment names like: hateslibs, Holyman, imam obama, Justice For All and Tea Party Patriot and of course the thinly veiled racist comments like the one referring to the President as a "pimp" and the person who thinks "imam obama" was a pithy by line, an out right reference to Obama being Muslim. As of now, the most vile and offensive of the posts have finally been moderated by the hill, but the stench from reading the vile comments can't be removed. If you feel you need to see how horrible and violent and offensive, head over to Dave's post today. He has some of the worst, even ones I would not reprint here. In a world that is increasingly inter-connected and complex, the only salvation we really have is to see each other as human beings. When people degrade and "joke" about violence or cheer the death of others, it makes me sick and it horrifies me to think of the kind of world my daughter is going to inherit. I had really hoped we'd found a way to turn down the violent rhetoric, but apparently, I'm wrong, dead wrong.

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Got an e-mail from the folks attending NetRoots:

Yesterday's Labor Caucus at Netroots Nation went very well - more than 40 people showed up to talk about how to better connect progressives with the Labor Movement. Seth Michaels aptly blogged about the caucus here: http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/07/18/netroots-nation-labor-caucus-stresses-employee-free-choice/

But the most interesting result of the caucus was an idea to mobilize netroots around Labor Day - to bring back the real message of Labor Day about recognizing America's workers. So last night several of us set up this simple website to secure commitments to blog about Labor Day on Labor Day. The goal is to organize in advance of Sept. 1 and distribute information to make it easy for people to write about unions, workers, and economic solutions for Labor Day.

Sign up to blog here:

http://takebacklaborday.org/

So let's get going - spread the word, secure commitments to blog, and we'll organize a comprehensive campaign on Labor Day to take back the holiday for America's workers.

Michael

Don't forget to sign up!!

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Got this from Labourstart this morning and wanted to pass it on.

The Turkish government has jailed a woman trade unionist, Meryem Özsögüt, and has kept her in detention for nearly six months.

Meryem is a leader of the public sector union SES, and we've been asked by Public Services International (PSI) to launch a big online campaign demanding her release.

For more details and to add your signature, please sign this petition!!

The petition will send this information to the Prime Minister of Turkey:

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan
Republic of Turkey
Ankara
Turkey

cc Mr Besir Atalay, Minister of Interior
Mr Faruk Çelik, Minister of Work and Social Security

I write to urge you to secure the immediate release of Ms Özsögüt and to take any necessary steps to guarantee her safety.

I have been informed that Ms Özsögüt was arrested following her participation in a press conference on 14 December 2007 to denounce the killing of Kevser Mizrak. Ms Özsögüt’s attendance at the press conference was the result of a fax message received by her trade union, requesting that the union participate in the press conference. I understand that at no time before or during this press conference did the police or other authorities issue a warning that such a gathering or activity was viewed as 'illegal'.

I have been further informed that several other people who were arrested at or around the same time as Ms Özsögüt, ostensibly for the same reasons, have since been released. However, Ms Özsögüt remains in custody and her trial has now been postponed several times.

I call on your Government to secure the immediate release of Ms Özsögüt, to take any necessary steps to guarantee her safety, to take the appropriate steps to ensure that all public sector workers are fully guaranteed their right to organise, form trade unions and carry out legitimate trade union activities both in law and in practice without State interference.

Yours sincerely

Hope you sign on to the petition.

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