Strawberries are coming in, and summer is keeping us busy! We hope to see you at one of the upcoming events where Central New Yorkers come together to celebrate, learn from past struggles against injustice, and forge ahead to make a just future.
In the belief that the deepening inequality and institutional racism that gave birth to our current president will outlive him unless we act in solidarity with our neighbors, we invite you to join Community Outreach and Defense as we support local resistance and connect it to national and international struggles.
ACTION ITEMS
Make 3 Calls for Driver’s Licenses for All
- CALL your NY Assembly Member at their district office (find their number here) and ask them to sign on to bill A4050 to restore access to driver’s licenses, regardless of immigration status! This is the most important call you will make and the best way to support the campaign.
- CALL 518-455-5606 to reach Assembly Member David Gantt, Chairperson, of the Transportation Committee, where our bill is currently stuck. Ask Assembly Member Gantt to support and move the bill through committee.
- CALL 518-455-3791 to reach Speaker of the Assembly, Carl Heastie, and ask him to prioritize passing Bill A4050 in the 2017 session.
For more information, follow the Green Light NY: Driving together campaign on Facebook and Twitter so you can stay updated on the campaign. #GreenLightNY
Write a letter to the editor re: Milked: Immigrant Dairy Farmworkers in NY State
Published by the Workers’ Center of Central New York and the Worker Justice Center, this study finds that a race to the bottom is occurring in the treatment and working conditions of the immigrant laborers who toil in milking parlors and barns. Please continue reading and sharing the report at www.milkedny.org.
Write a message to Chobani, a leading yogurt company located in upstate New York and major purchaser of New York dairy. Ask them to read the Milked report, and to implement a worker-driven code of conduct ensuring fair labor practices throughout their supply chain.
Get the Word Out: June 22nd DEC Public Hearing about Onondaga Creek and Lake
As part of the Onondaga Lake Natural Resource Damage Assessment Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment (NRDAR) process, proposals have been submitted for projects that would restore wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities lost because of toxic pollution by Allied Signal, now Honeywell International. The 20 proposals already submitted fall far short of restoration for our neighbors on the South Side and in the Onondaga Nation. The long history of environmental racism in our region must be reversed rather than deepened.
The period for submitting project proposals to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service was recently extended by 45 days and an Open House (5pm) and Public Hearing (6pm) for the Southwest Community Center on June 22nd.
CNY Solidarity is coordinating with Syracuse United Neighbors (SUN) to turn out a big crowd of people for the June 22nd hearing to advocate for projects that would restore habitat, provide recreation, slow down the creek and reduce the floodplain. A concept that has surfaced among those in the South- and Southwest Side neighborhoods is a retention basin like the Meadowbrook Retention Basin which runs alongside Barry Park in the Westcott neighborhood. The county maintains that basin which, in turn, controls the Meadowbrook floodplain.
The hearing on the 22nd is also an opportunity to advocate for different ways of assessing damage so that, for example, restoration efforts might reflect the Onondaga Nation’s traditional uses of the Lake. We advocate for projects that would incorporate native plants or include medicinal or ceremonial plants grown in uncontaminated spots off the Lake or in northern areas of the lake where contamination is more limited. Likewise, projects that support restoration of a cool water fishery or that address mudboil contamination would provide benefit to the Nation.
You can email Maureen Curtin and/or Jessica Elliot to participate in flyering on Juneteenth.
Likewise, if you can flyer at stores or knock on doors on the South Side between 6/18 and 6/21, please contact one of us. Click here for a half-sheet flyer you can download, print, and share.
To join a team of door knockers on the South Side on Saturday, 6/17, between 3 and 5pm, please email Dawn Wilson.
For those who cannot help with mobilization but wish to participate in the public hearing, please check out the events below for more background and information about how you can participate in the hearing on 6/22. You can also learn more here.
Saturday 6/17: Juneteenth, CNY Pride, and Reproductive Justice
Juneteenth Parade – Join the Syracuse Peace Council’s section of the parade!
10:45am, Dunbar Center, 1453 S. State St
The SPC invites us to join the “call for no war abroad, no war against Black and Brown people at home. No to AG Session’s escalation of the war against Black and Brown people—the war on drugs. No to criminalization of Black neighborhoods to clear the way for gentrification and luxury student apartments so a few developers get rich. End mass incarceration. Treat addiction like the medical condition that it is, not a crime. Peace is the absence of injustice!”
To volunteer for a shift tabling for the CNY Solidarity Coalition, please email Dana Balter.
For those with general questions about joining the Peace Council to celebrate Juneteenth, please email Brian Escobar.
CNY Pride
The parade lines up in one of Destiny Mall’s parking lots, off Solar Street, between 9 and 10:30am. The parade steps off at 11am, and people can watch the parade as it moves south on Solar to W. Kirkpatrick and into the Inner Harbor Park. The festival will run to 5pm. CNY Pride’s 2017 theme is “Love is …” For more information, go to http://cnypride.org/parade_information.aspx or call 315-254-2386.
Planned Parenthood: “Intersections: A Reproductive Justice Series”
You are invited to a screening of The Handmaid’s Tale (1990) and a post-film discussion at Onondaga Community College (Academics II, p100), from 5-9pm. The film and the latest Netflix version, based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name (1985), represents a terrifying, dystopian future for some. But others see the novel as belonging to the genre of realism, insofar as it documents the entanglement of white supremacy and patriarchy at the heart of slavery in the U.S.
The post-film discussion will feature guest speakers Dr. Kishi Animashaun Ducre from Syracuse University and Dr. Godriver Odhiambo from LeMoyne College. For more information, please contact Gina Iliev.
Sunday, June 18th: Black ‘Cuse Pride Cookout
Comstock Park, at E. Colvin and Comstock (opposite Manley Field House), 2-6pm
Black ‘Cuse Pride, together with the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (NBLCA) and the Spanish Action League, welcome us to a cookout! Free food, games (kickball!), and free HIV/AIDS testing.
The recent New York Times story, “America’s Hidden H.I.V. Epidemic: Why Do America’s Black Gay and Bisexual Men Have a Higher HIV Rate than Any Country in the World?” calls for more intensive grassroots organizing to counteract the compounding, deadly effects of colorblindness in science, structural racism in LGBTQ political organizing, inadequate local healthcare infrastructure, and poverty.
Please contact Rahzie Seals if you are interested in contributing to the community-building efforts of Black ‘Cuse Pride and the advocacy and education work of NBLCA: 315-863-4539. Or go to the event page.
Tuesday, June 20th: Community Outreach and Defense Meets 1st and 3rd Tuesdays
The Community Outreach and Defense committee meets at 7pm at the Center for Peace and Social Justice (2013 E. Genesee Street). We invite you to join us as we build momentum for the DEC hearing on June 22nd, support the activities of the Workers’ Center of Central New York, explore possibilities for a town hall, and develop internal education for the CNY Solidarity Coalition.
Wednesday, 6/21: Rapid Response Meeting, 6pm, Center for Peace and Social Justice
The ICE deportation machine is in overdrive. ICE director, Thomas Homan, recently remarked that all undocumented people are “perpetrators”—those who have children are, he says, culpable for the state’s separation of their families—and should be looking over their shoulders. Chillingly, Homan went on to remark, “No population is off the table,” a phrase evocative of a long history of state violence. More than witnessing, this is a time to challenge the arrest, detention, and deportation of undocumented people.
Please email Nikeeta Slade for confirmation of what is currently a tentatively scheduled meeting.
Thursday, 6/22: DEC Open House & Public Comments on Projects to Restore Onondaga Creek/Lake
Syracuse Community Connections (aka Southwest Community Center), 401 South Ave
The NY Department of Environmental Conservation, together with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services, have scheduled an open house at 5pm, followed by a public hearing at 6pm.
In the public comment period (6pm) after the open house, we will demand that Onondaga Creek projects get prioritized for funding. South Side residents are interested in the Meadowbrook Flood Retention system as a model for what could be created along the Creek. This would restore habitat, offer recreation opportunities, and increase the creek’s carrying capacity, perhaps reversing recently mandated floodplain insurance.
We would be thrilled to have you at the hearing, too, of course! Bring signs and join a chorus of support! Our goal is to center the voices of residents on the South Side who will name their losses and demand the forms of restoration and reparation they deserve.
You can also learn more here: https://www.cnysolidarity.org/2017/06/14/dec-hearing/
Tuesday, June 27: MILKED Brown Bag Lunch, 12-2pm 25 W. 18th Street NYC 10011
WCCNY members Crispin Hernandez and Victor Hernandez, WCCNY organizer Rebecca Fuentes, WJCNY Worker advocate Carly Fox, and SEIU 32BJ President Hector Figueroa will talk about the report findings of the MILKED report and about what we can do next to support the rights of immigrant dairy workers in New York. *Please share with your New York City Friends.*