Obama reported firm in his support for EFCA

From: PWW

Author: John Wojcik
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 07/13/09 17:24

A top aid to one of the union leaders present at a White House meeting with President Obama today said the president remains firmly committed to passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, the bill that would make it easier to unionize.

“He told the leaders that his administration is firmly committed to the bill but as of now there is no formal timeline on when it would get to his desk,” the aid said.

Lawmakers have been struggling to work out a “compromise” on the bill because several Democrats have been wavering and a 60 vote majority is needed to break any Republican filibuster.

The aid also said that the labor leaders, who emerged from the meeting with the president late in the afternoon, assured him that the administration has labor’s full support on health care reform.

Union leaders present at the meeting represent unions in both labor federations, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win. The independent National Education Association was also represented.

For more information: "Union leaders meet with Obama" at pww.org/article/articleview/16353/.

Poor Man's Stroll

http://www.vimeo.com/5530120t

The 2nd single from ((Stero))type's album Ultrasound.  The song chronicles the "ills of capitalism and captures the sentiments of millions of americans, living poor and under appreciated." says half of ((Stero))type, Drematic.

Want more? Check out music collective Indi-Arts at indi-arts.org 

STITCH in MKE!!!

Interviewee: Milwaukee activist and artist, as well as Young Communist League leader, Jeanette Martín talks about a local open mic series that she and two other local activists put together. 

Interviewer: Ursula Mlynarek is the National Membership Coordinator of the Young Communist League, U.S.A. and native Milwaukee-ian.   

UM: What is Stitch?

JM: STITCH is the name that we, Alida Cardos Whaley, Tony Garcia & myself came up with.  We we're thinking about what this open mic series entailed of, and what it meant to us.  I yelled out STITCH! Since this open mic series is our own way of trying to stitch both sides of Milwaukee, and build community. 

UM: What is the format of Stitch?

JM: This weekly open mic series travels from one venue to the other- bringing in youth from one side of town to the other.  Youth share thoughts, ideas, poems, songs and other art forms.  Each night has different featured artists. Features were chosen through word of mouth, connections and people that heard about this open mic series. 

UM: Are a lot of the features political?  

JM: I believe that many of the features have strong messages to send across to the audience, but I would not label all of them political. 
 

UM: Why is Stitch unique?

Stitch is unique since it is being organized from the actual folks that are part of these communities, for a good cause.   I've gotten tons of emails from other coffee shops and venues that were very excited about what we were doing-and wanted to help us in any way that they could.  That was one thing that really showed me that we were doing something positive for our comunidades.   

UM: You keep referring to Milwaukee's "two sides" of the city.  Please describe what you mean by these different sides, and what the importance of connecting them. 

JM: The north side of Milwaukee is disenfranchised and financially deprived, and most of its residents are African American. The eastside of Milwaukee, UW-Milwaukee campus area, known to be the "nice" side of town, and there is a diverse group of folks living there, but the majority being white. The east side of Milwaukee also hosts financially wealthy Milwaukee residents.  The Southside of Milwaukee, that was a majority Polish neighborhood since the early 1900s has now transitioned into being a predominantly Mexican, Puerto Rican as well as Hmong community. In the deep Southside of Milwaukee is the home to mostly white working class.  By having the open mics alternate weekly, people are exposed to a place they may have never been to before, or would even think about going to otherwise. 

UM: Tell me about Son MUDANZA, one of the key performers tonight.

JM: Son Mudanza established itself 2 years ago through influence of Son del Centro, a Chican@ Son Jarocho group in Santa Ana, California. Son Mudanza uses dance, poetry and song to built community as well as use as a form of cultural resistance here in the United States. A lot of the poems are the struggle on both sides of the border, as well as personal realities about being a Chican@ here in the United States.

Son Mudanza believes in solidarity and supports other social movements that believe in the power of difference.  We're all friends, organizers and activists in our communities. 

Budget Cuts in Illinois

Students brace for the worst as cuts to state grants loom

• By Peter Sachs 
• 
• Staff Writer 
• 
• June 30, 2009 @ 7:00 AM

More

The news that state officials have drastically cut financial aid for the coming school year has some college students thinking about taking on extra jobs to pay their tuition bills, while others say they may have to drop out.

Last week, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission cut Monetary Award Program grants to about 137,000 students in the state by more than half.

The big cut means students will get about 85 percent of their promised aid for the fall term. They will receive no aid at all in the spring unless the state legislature passes a budget with greater funding for the grant program.

Damian Wolak, the undergraduate student body president at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says he’s been the first person to tell many of his peers about the looming cuts.

“They feel as if the MAP grant is like an entitlement, that they got their letters in the mail and they think everything is coming and everything is well,” Wolak says.

But in fact, the 6,200 students at UIC slated to get the state grants this coming year will collectively receive just $10.2 million under the current state budget. That compares with $24.5 million in state funds handed out to a similar number of UIC students last year. For individual UIC students, the average grant would drop from $4,000 to about $1,600 for the year.

The pattern is similar at many other Chicago-area schools.

“It’s not just like, oh, I can find these resources in another place,” says Columbia College photography major Ann Meyer.

Meyer is among a sizeable group of students getting MAP grants who get little or no support from their parents, relying on a combination of grants, scholarships and federal subsidized student loans to pay for college.

Even small amounts can affect a student’s aid package, says Michael Johns, also a Columbia student.

“For them, $2,500 may not seem like a lot of money, but to me, that’s the difference between having to work a job … versus being able to take a few extra courses,” he says.

Some students may have to take more drastic steps if the state grants aren’t restored.

“A lot of my close friends that are going to be seniors are having the change schools,” says Roosevelt University senior Dimitra Georgouses, citing at least one friend who is transferring to Northeastern Illinois University because it costs less than Roosevelt.

Wolak says he has talked to may students who, once they realize the state grants will be shrinking so much, say, “I’ve really got to reconsider how I’m going to put myself through school.

“They don’t really have a plan of action,” Wolak says.

Daily News Staff Writer Peter Sachs covers higher education. He can be reached at 773.362.5002, ext. 18, or peter [at] chitowndailynews [dot] org.