3/9/10

Reminder No Public Meeting 3/10

Just a reminder, in order to prepare for the ISO's national convention we will be having a closed, members only, meeting this wed 3/10. We will resume our weekly public meetings next wed the 17th!!

Instead of our wed meeting, we'd like to direct you to 2 great events on Thursday hosted by coalitions and groups that we are involved with. The Student-Worker Coalition's UW General Assembly for budget cuts organizing and afterward SOLE's ENDA Launch Party with a showing of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"all the info for both events is below, get involved in organizing around these important issues!

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UW General Assembly:
The student strike was only the beginning! Come discuss how we can do it even better!


Thursday, March 11, 2010  6:00pm - 7:30pm
Smith 205, UW-Seattle

On March 4th, hundreds of students walked out of class at UW to protest budget cuts, tuition hikes, financial aid cuts, layoffs, and abuse of campus workers. Custodians, tradespeople, TAs, high school students and teachers joined them in solidarity.

It was one of the largest and most energetic demonstrations at UW in years as this video shows: http://www.facebook.com/l/6a319;www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3cLxJkbKAY

March 4th was so large because the Student Worker Coalition spent 6 weeks doing outreach for it in our classes, workplaces, and on campus.

But it had so much energy because hundreds of people spontaneously stepped up and spoke out, many of us leading chants and strategizing together to march through classrooms and to take over the Ave. Ya'll made it bigger and more powerful than the SWC organizers expected. By making decisions together in the streets we were showing that THIS is what democracy looks like!

But March 4th is just the beginning. Let's start mobilizing NOW for the next action so that, as Russell puts it in the video above, we will come back bigger and stronger than UW and Seattle have ever seen!

Come to the UW General Assembly Against Budget Cuts to express your views about where the movement should go from here. Think about what we should do next. A bigger rally? Another strike with deeper and longer picket lines? Civil Disobedience? How can we up the ante? And how can we get the message out that budget cuts affect all of us and we need to fight back before UW becomes even less accessible to folks from our communities!

Please invite your friends and if you can come with proposals for how to move forward from here.

***NOTE: We especially want representatives from various Ethnic Cultural Center groups, various departments, various workplaces, and other student organizations to come out. Make sure your community is represented. We understand it's almost finals so if you can't come try to find a friend or a member of your group who can come.

Individuals who aren't affiliated with groups are welcome as well. Every voice counts! *****


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ENDA Launch Party!!!
With a showing of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and FREE GUMMY BEARS!

Thursday, March 11, 2010 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Allen Auditorium ( in the Allen Library) on UW Campus
SOLE (Students Organizing for LGBTQ Equality) is celebrating the Launch of its petition website: www.signonamerica.org.

This website allows you to sign SOLE's ENDA petition to show your support for ENDA, the Employment Nondiscrimination Act nation wide!  
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

• In 30 states, an employer may legally fire someone based on his/ her/ hir sexual orientation

• In 38 states an employer may legally fire someone because of his/ her/ hir gender identity or gender expression.

For more information about ENDA visit this link: http://community.pflag.org/Page.aspx?pid=457

SOLE's last event "Milk & Cookies: A screening of the movie Milk with Cookies" was off the chain with more than 70+ attendees packing the auditorium! Here's another event with fun and even cooler: ACTIVISM! FREE GUMMY BEARS, A MOVIE, AND EQUAL RIGHTS!!!

Come show your support for Equal treatment in the workplace by signing the ENDA petition, watching "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and EATING GUMMY BEARS!!!