{"id":10199,"date":"2013-03-30T22:48:35","date_gmt":"2013-03-31T06:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=10199"},"modified":"2013-03-31T10:06:10","modified_gmt":"2013-03-31T18:06:10","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-opening-day-hope-springs-eternal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-opening-day-hope-springs-eternal\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: Opening Day + Hope Springs Eternal"},"content":{"rendered":"

We Say Fight Back!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Barbarism Rising
\nDetroit and the International War of the Rich on the Poor
\nby RICH GIBSON<\/strong>
\nEvery Detroit teacher was fired in the fall of 2012.
\nApparently, the nation did not notice. Hence, this story.<\/p>\n

On March 26, 2013, 78% of the voting members of the Detroit Federation of Teachers ratified a contract which DFT president, Keith Johnson, called, \u201cterrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contract mirrors, does not improve, an edict imposed on the union by an \u201cEmergency Manager,\u201d Roy Roberts, a black 74-year-old former manager at the failed General Motors corporation, once the most powerful company in the world now commonly called Government Motors. Roberts was appointed by Michigan Governor Snyder, effectively setting aside all the key actions of the elected Detroit School Board\u2013the third state takeover in 25 years. None of them repaired the school system.<\/p>\n

The DFT contract, though, does allow the union to continue to collect dues, the pacified labor of its members sold to Roberts for the term of the contract. DFT president Johnson will continue to receive his $142,000 salary as the rank and file accept another set of wage and benefit concessions.<\/p>\n

Concessions, DFT members should have learned, don\u2019t save jobs. Beginning in 1996, the DFT made concession on concession until, in the fall of 2012, every Detroit public school teacher was effectively fired and forced to reapply for a position. Hundreds of them, including teachers with 20 years and more seniority, one of them a former DFT vice president, have never been recalled. \u00a0\u00a0 www.counterpunch.org\/2013\/03\/28\/detroit-and-the-international-war-of-the-rich-on-the-poor\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Indiana University Strike Preparations iuonstrike.tumblr.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Gitmo Concentration Camp <\/strong>Hunger Strike Spreads <\/strong>A hunger strike among detainees at Guant\u00e1namo Bay, Cuba, who have been imprisoned by the United States military without trial \u2013 some for more than a decade \u2013 is continuing to grow, although there is sharp disagreement between the military and lawyers for the detainees about how many are participating. \u00a0As of Monday morning, 28 of the 166 prisoners had refused enough continuous meals to be deemed hunger strikers in the official count, and 10 of them were being force fed, said a military spokesman, Capt. Robert Durand. That was up from 26 hunger strikers and 8 who were being force fed on Friday, according to the military\u2019s count. Three detainees have been hospitalized for dehydration, Captain Durand added.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for detainees, however, citing declassified notes of conversations with their clients in person and by phone, claim that the military\u2019s numbers are significantly undercounting the actual level of participation. Their clients have told them that an overwhelming majority of the detainees in Camps Five and Six \u2013 where low-level suspects who are not facing any charges before a military commission, the bulk of the inmate population, are being held \u2013 have been refusing to eat for weeks, they said. \u00a0\u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2013\/03\/26\/us\/guantanamo-hunger-strike-appears-to-widen.html?ref=global-home<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Strongville O on Strike –3 weeks on <\/strong>Teachers have been picketing at board members homes since the first week of the strike, but began picketing work places on March 19, starting at Aleris International in Beachwood, where board member Carl Naso works. On March 20, the teachers picketed outside of Cuyahoga Community College, where board President David Frazee is an associate dean. \u00a0\u00a0 www.cleveland.com\/strongsville\/index.ssf\/2013\/03\/both_sides_in_strongsville_tea_1.html<\/a><\/p>\n