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How Does the Worst CEO of Retail Sleep at Night?

After this, he might not sleep so well anymore!

Via Upworthy:

After hearing Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries express his desire of not wanting larger-sized women or "not so cool" kids wearing his brand, this guy decided to fight back. He helps a group of people who could really use the clothes that Jeffries tries so hard to keep out of the hands of people he doesn't deem worthy. Check under the video for other ways in which you can help the homeless.

Click on these to find out more about how you can help:

Horizons for Homeless Children

5 Simple Ways to Help the Homeless

National Coalition for the Homeless





Video streaming by Ustream

On Monday morning, over 100 students and community members marched into TransCanada’s Westborough office and held a funeral mourning the loss of their future at the hands of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would transport the tar sands that climate scientists say will lock us into irreversible global warming. More than 25 protesters were arrested for refusing to leave the office in an act of civil disobedience.

From Funeral for Our Future:

On Monday, March 11, over 100 people representing a coalition of students, members of the Massachusetts Methodist clergy, mothers fighting for their children, and concerned community members marched into the Westborough, MA office of TransCanada Corporation and held a funeral mourning the loss of our future at the hands of the Keystone XL Pipeline. The pipeline will transport the tar sands that climate scientists say will lock us into irreversible global warming.

Of those 100 protesters, 25 of us locked themselves together with handcuffs and were arrested in an act of civil disobedience. Carrying a coffin emblazoned with the words “Our Future,” we held flowers and sang an elegy as we marched in procession.

Our action comes a week after a week after the US State Department released a widely criticized Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Keystone XL. While admitting that rejecting the pipeline would have little effect on jobs, the document minimizes claims about the pipeline’s impact on climate change and on communities who would be at risk for devastating pipeline spills like the 2010 Kalamazoo spill, from which the affected communities are still recovering. The impact assessment also makes the assumption that the Alberta tar sands will be developed regardless of whether Keystone XL goes forward—an assumption that we stand with indigenous communities, whose treaties the Canadian government is violating by allowing development of the tar sands, in rejecting.

“If the tar sands are extracted and burned, it will wipe out my future and the future of my entire generation,” said Will Pearl, a Tufts University freshman arrested in the action. “If President Obama will not reject the Keystone XL pipeline, we will stop it ourselves. We will rise up and resist -- from the backwoods of Texas, to corporate offices in Massachusetts, to the steps of the White House.”

For updates on this action, you can follow along on Twitter here.

H/T Brad Johnson



Irish Town Resists Bailout Conditions


Al Jazeera
reports that the European Central Bank has rejected Ireland's proposals to restructure some of the country's huge debts. The government wants to avoid paying tens of billions of dollars over the next decade to underwrite a failed bank. But one community in southern Ireland is unwilling to accept the terms of the bailout, blaming the government and banks for the economic crisis.



Cold And Mold In The Rockaways: Bloomberg's Stealth Visit

New York City's billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, stepped out of a helicopter midday Thursday in St. Camillus' parking lot, ironically an Occupy Sandy relief distribution hub in the Rockaways, Queens. The visit had been kept under wraps and not listed on his official schedule.

Bloomberg and a small party accompanying him were whisked off in black cars. He missed a greeting from community members in an area still reeling from Hurricane Sandy, with quickly-lettered signs: "Rockaways in Health Crisis," "We Need Safer Housing."

Bloomberg made his way to the still-shuttered offices of The Wave, the Rockaways weekly newspaper. As word spread about the stealth visit, a crowd gathered outside hoping to explain those signs to the mayor: a month after Sandy hit, swamping homes with seawater, many residents -- homeowners and tenants -- are still living without electricity, without heat, without working appliances, with black mold taking hold of walls and other surfaces. Temporary housing is desperately needed, absentee landlords must fix their properties.

The mayor emerged behind a row of police, thanked the group, and was quickly driven away -- avoiding a repeat of his November 4th visit when residents lambasted him for ignoring them.

[Via OccupyWallSt.Org]



The Occupy Movement: Detroit Chapter

Detroit Occupiers left Grand Circus Park nearly a year ago in the week preceding the city's Thanksgiving Day parade.

A new "mini-documentary" released on YouTube recently provides a glimpse of what it was like during those chilly days when the Detroit Occupy movement took root in October until the group left the park encampment in November 2011. "Occupy Detroit" depicts life in the encampment, from the medical tent to food preparation and the rallies it held in the streets of Detroit.

Although Occupy Detroit protestors are no longer visible on a daily basis in the public square, the movement continues to make its presence known. Members have taken an active role in supporting homeowners during bank foreclosures, occupied a school for the deaf and support other numerous causes, such as a women's rights march scheduled in Lansing later this week.

After leaving the park, a supporter donated Occupy Detroit use of a rent free building for one year. It now serves as the Occupy Detroit Activist Center at 5900 Michigan and many Occupy Detroit members have begun renting apartments above the center.



Occupy the Library

A group of eight squatters entered the north London library last week through an open window. They have now reopened the library to residents with the help of local volunteers. The Guardian spoke to both the squatters and community volunteers campaigning to keep the local library open.



Workers, Occupy Wall Street Fight Business Closure

crusty

Press release from the Laundry Workers Center via 99pickets. Today is the second day of the action; yesterday, five people were arrested during the occupation, but the picket continues 24/7 outside! If you're in New York, join them now at 63rd & 2nd Ave. Celebrate Labor Day weekend by taking collective action for economic justice!
Check Twitter hashtags for live updates: #OccupyHotnCrusty #99PKTS

Workers Allege Retaliatory Store Closure is an Employer Tactic to Break Recently Formed Union, the Hot and Crusty Workers Association

New York, NY, August 31 – Following news of an impending store closure, workers at the 63rd street location of Hot and Crusty bakery have called for a 24-hour picket and store occupation, alleging the company has deliberately withheld rent payments following a hard-fought and successful unionization drive in May 2012. The company, owned by private equity partner Mark Samson, gave the Hot and Crusty Workers Association 11 days notice of eviction from the property, informing employees that August 31st would be their last day.

The union, led by grassroots labor organization Laundry Workers Center and a contingent from Occupy Wall Street, students, faith and community members are occupying the workplace and holding an around-the-clock picket demanding the company discontinue its union-busting tactics, pay its rent immediately, and continue to negotiate a fair contract with its workers. The company has used several bait-and-switch tactics during negotiations, threatening workers’ immigration status to deter their commitment to continuing the fight.

The August 31 closure will mean the loss of 23 jobs – including those of employees with as many as twelve years of employment with the company. Workers allege owners, including Mark Samson, Evangelos Gavalas and Nick Glendis, have a demonstrated history of wage and hour violations, intimidation, retaliation and harassment of workers in several of their businesses, as well as a pattern of closing down shops and opening under different aliases to avoid legal and economic liability. Workers have filed charges at the National Labor Relations Board alleging that the company is closing the 63rd street shop to intimidate workers organizing at other Hot and Crusty locations.

The union, led by grassroots labor organization Laundry Workers Center and a contingent from Occupy Wall Street, students, faith and community members are occupying the workplace and holding an around-the-clock picket demanding the company discontinue its union-busting tactics, pay its rent immediately, and continue to negotiate a fair contract with its workers. The company has used several bait-and-switch tactics during negotiations, threatening workers’ immigration status to deter their commitment to continuing the fight.

Mahoma Lopez, a leader in the campaign who has worked at Hot and Crusty for over 7 years said “I want to send a message that we have to change the way immigrants are treated in this country. We have to show the bosses that we can’t be treated like animals any longer. We need to take radical action like people did in the civil rights movement, so that our voices can be heard. We are so happy to have the community here with us.”

Diego Ibanez, a member of Occupy Wall Street, emphasized the connection between Wall Street and workers, saying, “We’re sending a clear message to greedy bosses that we are watching and will not allow our people in he community to be oppressed any longer.”

unionbusting

@illuminator99 supporting the occupation with a night-time light display



Chicago Teachers Union Vs. Astroturf Billionaires

The Chicago Teachers Union is currently on the front lines of a fight to defend public education. On one side the 30,000 members of the CTU have called for a contract that includes fair compensation, meaningful job security for qualified teachers, smaller class sizes and a better school day with Art, Music, World Language and appropriate staffing levels to help our neediest students.

On the other side, the Chicago Board of Education—which is managed by out of town reformers and Broad Foundation hires with little or no Chicago public school experience—has pushed to add two weeks to the school year and 85 minutes to the school day, eliminate pay increases for seniority, evaluate teachers based on student test scores, and slash many other rights.

Teachers, parents and community supporters in Chicago have fought valiantly—marching, filling auditoriums at hearings and parent meetings, even occupying a school and taking over a school board meeting. Most recently, 98 percent of our members voted to authorize a strike. But now we find ourselves facing new opponents—national education privatizers, backed by some of the nation's wealthiest people. They are running radio ads, increasing press attacks, and mounting a PR campaign to discredit the CTU and the benefits of public education.



Watch live streaming video from globalrevolution at livestream.com

Luke's Global Revolution TV is livestreaming police brutality protests going on now in Montreal, Canada, as well as Occupy Oakland's sit-in and concert for education at Lakeview Elementary School.



Anita's Story: Facing Foreclosure

"On Tuesday, June 19, the sheriff posted a 24-hour eviction notice on the front door I have come home to for the last 17 years. I have nowhere to go. I am standing up for myself, my family and community. Although American Indians make up 1% of the population in Minnesota, 11% of homeless adults are American Indian. I can afford to pay for my house."

"All that I am asking is for Woodlands National Bank to sit down and negotiate with me, so I can stay in my community. They are an Indian bank that serves Native people, and right now homelessness is revenging our community. With the support of my neighbors and community, I know Woodlands bank will negotiate witth me, and become part of the solution to the housing crisis we face."

So begins yet another foreclosure story in post-Occupy America. Anita Reyes is working with her neighbors, community, and Occupy Homes MN to stop her foreclosure. Here she tells some stories about the home she has owned for seventeen years, shares thoughts about her personal feelings related to her foreclosure and places a demand on the bank to keep her in her home.

"I'm not moving," she says in the film. "I'm 52 years old - too old to start over."

Please sign Anita's Petition to stay in her home.