Blog moved to ErikMcGregor.com : September 2016

Monday, September 26, 2016

Over 20 Green Party supporters arrested as Jill Stein Occupy the Debates

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Despite exclusion from Hofstra debate stage, Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein engaged in real time with the official debate, making her case directly to the American people before, during, and after the televised debate via an unprecedented and innovative social media experience presented in partnership with Twitter and Periscope. She engaged in a “People’s Debate” with the assembled crowd at the gates, that was livestreamed via Periscope on Dr. Stein’s official Twitter. She also livestreamed her responses via Facebook Live on her Facebook page . This online initiative will ensure that Stein reaches the largest audience reached by a third party candidate since Ross Perot was included in the debates in 1992. In effect, Jill Stein used new media and technology to literally "insert" herself into the debate process.

Hundreds of supporters of Dr. Jill Stein attended the venue of the first presidential debate at Hofstra University. They seek to escort Jill Stein to the debate venue. After she was prevented from participating in the debate, her supporters held a "People's Debate" outside of the Hofstra venue. Some pledged to engage in dignified non-violent civil disobedience as a way to protest the Commission on Presidential Debates resulting on over 20 arrests.

The American people not only have a right to vote, they have the right to know who they can vote for. The Stein/Baraka campaign continues to fight for open debates and stand up for democracy, using all available means to inform and empower voters in the 2016 election.

The Stein/Baraka campaign agrees with 76% of US voters who, according to a USA Today poll, favor four candidates being included in the debate. They disagree with the Democratic and Republican controlled commission which is ensuring their parties do not have to debate other candidates.

#Activism #arrests #BreakThe2PartyTrap #CivilDisobedience #Debates2016 #demonstration #GPBK #GreenParty #GreenPartyBrooklyn #GreenPartyNYC #Hofstra #ItsInOurHands #JillStein #LetJillDebate #NewYork #NYC #OccupyTheDebates #OpenDebates #PresidentialCandidate #PresidentialDebates #Protest #rally

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Saturday, September 24, 2016

Activists calling for an immediate halt on CPV power plant construction upon corruption scandal

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New York - An unfolding federal corruption investigation could have a major impact on the Senate race in New York’s 42nd District where longtime Republican incumbent John Bonacic faces Democratic challenger Pramilla Malick. The two have long been at odds over the construction of the CPV gas-fired power plant in the Orange County town of Wawayanda. The Senator has used his official position to promote the plant, while his son, John “Scott” Bonacic, has profited, first by brokering the purchase of land for CPV, and again when his law firm was retained to handle “community relations” for the controversial project.

Malick has led the fight against the CPV plant citing the threat it posed to human health and numerous irregularities in the permitting process. She felt vindicated yesterday when she learned that U.S. Attorney Preet Bhahara indicted CPV executive Peter Galbraith Kelly on bribery charges. According to the federal indictment, Kelly illegally funneled $280,000 to Albany power brokers in order to grease the skids for the project. “If a Mom from Minisink can smell corruption a mile away, are we really supposed to believe John Bonacic was completely unaware of all the corruption that was going on right under his nose?” asked Malick. “He’s been an Albany insider for twenty-six years. He’s a lawyer; his son’s a lawyer. Neither of them could smell a rat?"

Earlier this year a CPV consultant, Todd Howe, pled guilty to extortion, bribery and tax fraud, and Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered state employees to suspend discussions of regulatory matters with CPV.

Seven other individuals were indicted along with Kelly. "I really do hope that there's a trial in this case so that all New Yorkers can see — in gory detail — what their state government has been up to,” said Bharaha. In announcing the indictments, he made it clear that the investigation is ongoing, and that there may be further indictments.

Malick has made ethics a central theme of her campaign. She has endorsed the Demand Democracy agenda that calls for reining in big money in politics and real ethics reform in Albany. One provision of the reform package would bar lawmakers from receiving taxpayer-funded pensions if they are convicted of criminal wrongdoing.

#Activism #ActOnClimate #AirPollution #AndrewCuomo #BeyondExtremeEnergy #bribery #BXE #cleanenergy #ClimateChange #climatejustice #CompetitivePowerVentures #corruption #CPV #Cuomo #demonstration #extorsion #FossilFree #GovernorCuomo #KeepItIntheGround #NewYork #NoCPV #NoPipelines #PeterGalbraithKelly #Pollution #PowerPlant #PressConference #‎Solidarity #StopCPV #StopGasExports #Wawayanda6 #YOUAREHERE

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Saturday, September 17, 2016

New York activist flotilla protest fracked gas pipeline next to Indian Point

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Climate Defenders take to the rivers and the sea to protest the Spectra AIM Pipeline.

Verplanck, NY – Today, as Spectra Energy prepared to drag its 42-inch diameter, high pressure, fracked-methane gas pipeline under the Hudson River adjacent to Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, activists boated out on the Hudson to the pipeline site to protest the pipeline project. Spectra Energy’s proposed AIM Pipeline would bring fracked gas from Pennsylvania to New England, despite a report from the Massachusetts Attorney General that shows no need for this gas. In New York, if completed, the AIM Pipeline would carry gas through residential communities and within 105 feet of critical safety facilities at Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant.

Andrew Courtney of New York described their activities as follows: “We are hitting the water today in solidarity with our indigenous sisters and brothers who gave us the Two Row Wampum Hudson long paddle two years ago and whose name for this river was ‘A river that flows two ways.’ We stand with our activist kayakers in Seattle and most recently on the Missouri River in collaboration with the Standing Rock protectors actions in North Dakota."

Iemanja Brown, a New Yorker who also sailed in the flotilla, added: “I’m kayaking to raise awareness about the risks that the AIM Pipeline project poses to the Hudson River. This is a really important ecosystem for wildlife and human communities, for fish migration and fresh water. We need to advocate for its health and shut down profit-seeking destructive projects that will endanger us all!”

Today’s action is the latest development in an ongoing effort to stop Spectra Energy from constructing their massive Algonquin Incremental Market Expansion project. On August 3rd, both New York Senators wrote to FERC, calling for an immediate halt to construction of the pipeline; FERC has so far ignored the Senators’ request. Earlier, on February 29, 2016, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo called for an immediate halt to construction while the state conducts an independent risk assessment. FERC has the legal authority to issue a stop work order, yet continues to ignore elected officials' calls for protection of public safety. Residents and advocates are calling on Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to use their influence to stop the pipeline once and for all, and are calling on Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand to attend the next FERC meeting on September 22nd in Washington, DC.

#Activism #ActOnClimate #AIMpipeline #Astorino #boats #BXE #CFOW #ClimateChange #climatejustice #FERC #flotilla #FossilFree #Fracking #HudsonRiver #indianPoint #KeepItIntheGround #Methane #NewYork #NoPipelines #renewables #ResistSpectra #SaneEnergyProject #SaneSolutions #SAPE #SEnRG #‎Solidarity #StopAIMpipeline #StopGasExports #StopSpectra ‪#‎weareallconnected‬ #WeSayNo

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Friday, September 16, 2016

NY City Council public hearing for the Housing Not Warehousing Act

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Picture the Homeless announced the introduction of the Housing Not Warehousing Act – a package of three City Council bills:

* Intro 1034 will create a mandatory registry for all landlords holding their property vacant, with fines for failure to register.

* Intro 1036 is a City Council bill that would mandate an annual count of all vacant property in New York City.

* Intro 1039 would compile a list of all city, state, federally, and authority-owned vacant property suitable for the development of affordable housing, and recommend paths towards bringing these units to occupancy for affordable housing when possible.

Combined, these bills would be some of the strongest anti-warehousing legislation this city has ever seen. They are a crucial step to mitigate and solve the housing crisis and unparalleled level of homelessness in New York City.

Vacant properties are pervasive throughout New York City. In 2011, Picture the Homeless conducted a citywide count of vacant buildings and lots – and found enough potential housing for 199,981 people! New York City has spent years giving away its property assets to for-profit developers that have no intention of providing housing for extremely low income households, but a lot of land remains under the City’s control that is ripe for development.

“The city and landlords have been holding these properties for decades,” said PTH member Charmel Lucas. “This bill is a first step to putting families in permanent extremely low income housing. If New York City is truly dedicated to solving the housing crisis and eradicating homelessness, we need to know what resources we have and where people can live. One of the first easy steps to take is to find out where these properties are, who owns them, and create pathways for these vacancies to become housing for extremely low income households – the people who need it most!"

“Poor people instinctively know that we need truly-affordable housing and stable jobs,” said Rogers, a member of Picture the Homeless “Developers, builders, and speculators see vacant spaces as future wealth. That future wealth does us no good now, when people are hungry and starving and homeless. Identifying vacant spaces is part of measuring the resources of New York City, both real and potential.”

#AffordableHousing #BananaKelly #BarryGrodenchik #CHTU #CityComptroller #CityHall #CrownHeightsTenantUnion #displacement #Gentrification #GMHC #HelenRosenthal #Housing #HousingCommitee #HousingNotWerehousing #HousingRights #humanrights #JumaneeWilliams #LetitiaJames #LowIncomeHousing #manhattan #MayorDeBlasio #NewYork #NYC #NYCityCouncil #NYCPublicAdvocate #PictureTheHomeless #PressConference #PTH #RafaelSalamancaJr #rally #SaveNYC #ScottStringer #VacantProperty #YdanisRodriguez

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Wednesday, September 14, 2016

ACT UP protest pharma greed by smashing giant EpiPen Piñata filled with gold coins outside Mylan headquarters in Manhattan

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New York, NY – On Wednesday afternoon, activists from ACT UP/NY (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power), VOCAL NY (Voices of Community Activists and Leaders), UAEM (Universities Allied for Essential Medicines) and other groups protested the ongoing U.S. drug pricing crisis, as demonstrated by the 1,100% increase in the price for an EpiPen, a device that can stop a life-threatening allergic reaction.

A giant EpiPen piñata filled with gold coins was smashed to visualize the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, which threatens millions of lives every year. Activists targeted Mylan CEO Heather Bresch chanting, “Heather Bresch, whaddya say? How many kids have you killed today?”

The protest took place outside the New York City office of Mylan Pharmaceuticals in the Chrysler Building. Mylan, the maker of the Epipen, raised its price from $50 in 2004 to $600 today (the device costs about $20 to make). At the same time, Mylan CEO Heather Bresch saw her salary jump from $2.5 million to $19 million. Mylan has also increased prices over 20% on 24 other drugs, including a 542% increase on a gall stone medication.

Activists were also protesting Gilead Sciences who put a $1,000 per-pill price tag on its hepatitis C drug Sovaldi and Pfizer, Inc which raised prices this year for more than 100 of its drugs, some by as much as 20%.

Activists also decried the price hikes for Naloxone, used to reverse opioid overdoses, which costs over 17 times what it did two years ago, and Insulin, the price of which has jumped over 200% from 2002 to 2013.

Pharma claims their high prices reflect research costs. But a study published in JAMA found that drug companies invest only 10 to 20% of their revenue in research. The authors wrote, “Prescription drugs are priced primarily on the basis of what the market will bear.” Much critical drug research actually takes place in publicly-funded academic institutions or with other taxpayer funding.

ACT UP member Mark Milano said, “Since American taxpayers fund much of the research that goes into creating these medications, we can’t then hand it off to pharmaceutical companies to charge exorbitant prices that we can’t afford or that bankrupt us. High drug prices reduce accessibility and risk people’s lives.”

#2016 #Activism #ActUp #ActUpNY #AffodableMeds #Art #BigPharma #biotech #CorporateGreed #demonstration #EpiPen #FIGHTBACK #healthcare #healthcareisaRIGHT #humanrights #mylan #NewYork #NYC #PeopleOverProfit #pharmaceuticals #PharmaGreedKills #PriceGouging #Protest #rally #‎Solidarity #UAEM #VocalNY

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Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Quakers NYC solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux

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The movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline is growing stronger by the day, and it’s time for all of us to rise up and play a role in this fight. Quakers NYC organized a gathering on Tuesday, September 13 for a solidarity action and rally at Washington Square Park, NYC, calling on President Obama to instruct the Army Corps of Engineers to revoke the permits for this dirty oil pipeline and to call attention to the brave water and land protectors at Standing Rock.

In western North Dakota, the Camp of the Sacred Stones and the Red Warrior Camp have called for solidarity actions from 9/3-9/17 to support their frontline, indigenous-led resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).

NoDAPL is a movement for the recognition that water is life, that climate change can only be slowed if fossil fuels are kept in the ground, that a just future based on a renewable energy economy is possible, that frontline communities of color and native peoples continue to bear the brunt of environmental injustice and racism, and that brutality by security forces against the bodies of peacefully protesting people harms civil liberties everywhere.

The Dakota Access Pipeline is a $3.7 billion, 1,100-mile, fracked-oil pipeline currently under construction from the Bakken shale fields of western North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa that will connect to an existing pipeline in Peoria, Illinois. DAPL is slated to cross Lakota Treaty Territory at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation where it would be laid underneath the Missouri River, the longest river on the continent. Once operational, the DAPL would carry 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day across Indian Country, aquifers, sacred land, indigenous burial sites, wilderness, and agricultural land.

Construction of the DAPL would spawn a renewed fracking frenzy in the Bakken shale region, and endanger a source of fresh water for the Standing Rock Sioux and 8 million people living downstream.

The resistance to the DAPL began in April, but escalated two weeks ago when four women risked their bodies to physically stop construction of the pipeline. Since then the UN has said that denial of a say in the pipeline to the Standing Rock Sioux is a violation of their human rights. One hundred and fifty tribes from Canada and the U.S. have joined the resistance at Standing Rock -- the largest gathering of Native peoples in the United States in decades -- with thousands occupying two camps on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. The protectors have been met with concrete barriers, lines of armed police, helicopters, security vehicles, arrests, and threats.

#Activism #ActOnClimate #ClimateChange #climatejustice #DakotaAccessPipeline #DAPL #FERC #FirstNations #FossilFree #Fracking #IndigenousRights #KeepItIntheGround #Methane #NewYork #NoDAPL #NoPipelines #SacredLand #‎Solidarity #StandwithStandingRock #StopEnbridge #WaterisLife ‪#‎weareallconnected

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NYC: Gays Against Guns protest Smith & Wesson

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Gays Against Guns (GAG) held a press conference and an action against Smith and Wesson's James Debney and Black Rock as Debney speaks at the 2016 Best Ideas Conference produced by CL King & Associates at the Omni Berkshire Place Hotel

The press conference was held outside the Omni Berkshire Place Hotel in Manhattan (21 E 52nd St, New York, NY 10022), featuring Tish James, NYC Public Advocate; Leah Gunn Barrett, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence; Kirsten Foy, National Action Network; Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, Congregation Beth Simchat Torah; Rev. Micah Bucey, Judson Memorial Church; Rev. Elder Pat Bumgardner, MCCNY; Jay Walker, Gays Against Guns!

Religious leaders, activists, elected officials, and gun reform leaders all spoke about the dangerous and deadly culture of gun violence we are living in as well as the direct and deadly relationship between private equity investment (Black Rock) in gun manufacturers (Smith & Wesson). THE GUN BUSINESS IS KILLING AMERICA.

After the press conference, the group marched in procession to BlackRock headquarters (55 E 52nd St,, New York, NY), where they engaged in a silent protest as they follow the money from BlackRock to Smith & Wesson to the end consumers--those killed, maimed, and otherwise affected by gun violence in America.

#Activism #BlackRock #ChainOfDeath #demonstration #DisarmHate #dropthegunstocks #GAG #GAGisWatching #GAGNY #GaysAgainstGuns #GunControl #GunViolence #LGBTQ #LivesNotProfits #manhattan #march #NewYork #NRA #NYC #OnmiBerkshire #PressConference #Protest #QueerNation #rally #SmithAndWesson #‎Solidarity #stopgunviolence #StopTheGuns #StopTheHate #StopTheViolence

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Saturday, September 10, 2016

"NYC: Union Made" - Labor Day Parade 2016

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The theme this year Labor Day Parade is "NYC: Union Made", celebrating NYC's labor heritage and history, and bold, bright future.

New york Governor Andrew Cuomo among other city officials were the Honorary Guests at the Labor Day Parade 2016

James Callahan, General President of the International Union of Operating Engineers and Labor Day Parade 2016 Grand Marshal

Labor Day is the one day that honors the contributions of working men and women to America’s social and economic life. It was first celebrated in the United States on Sept. 5, 1882, when about 20,000 working people marched in New York City to demand an eight-hour workday and other labor law reforms. About a quarter million New Yorkers turned out to watch. The fight to preserve overtime pay for more than eight hours of work a day marks this Labor Day 122 years later.

The U.S. Department of Labor describes Labor Day this way: “It is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of our country.”

#2016 #AFLCIO #CityOfficials #ErikMcGregor #FifthAvenue #GovernorCuomo #LaborDay* #LaborDayParade #LDP2016 #manhattan #NewYork #NYC #NYCUnionMade #Parade #Photography #Union #UnionMade #UnionWorkers #WorkerRights

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Friday, September 9, 2016

New York #NoDAPL solidarity rally for Standing Rock

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New York Activist groups stand in solidarity and to show support for the Standing Rock Sioux #NoDAPL in their fight to protect the land and water as the Obama administration said it would not authorize construction on a critical stretch of the Dakota Access pipeline, handing a significant victory to the Indian tribe fighting the project the same day the group lost a court battle.

The administration said construction would halt until it can do more environmental assessments.

The Department of Justice, the Army and the Interior Department jointly announced that construction would pause on the pipeline near North Dakota's Lake Oahe, a major water source on the Missouri River for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

The Army Corps has permitted pipeline construction near Lake Oahe. But, as of last month, federal agencies had not yet issued the easements necessary for construction to begin there.

Dave Archambault II, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, hailed the decision, and vowed to continue fighting against the project.

Organizers in New York will be collecting supplies to send to Standing Rock as they continue to hold their territory against the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Rally for Standing Rock is organized by a group of Indigenous scholars and activists, and settler/ POC supporters. They belong and are responsible to a range of Indigenous peoples and nations, including Tlingit, Haudenosaunee, Secwepemc, St'at'imc, Creek (Muscogee), Anishinaabe, Diné, Peoria, Maya Kaqchikel, and Quechua. They have joined forces to support the Standing Rock Sioux in their continued assertion of sovereignty over their traditional territories.

The people of New York stand in solidarity with the Lenape, and all Indigenous peoples, whose land was stolen to create the settler-colonial states of Canada and the United States, and who continue to live under siege, surveillance, and violence on their own occupied land.

#Activism #ActOnClimate #BeyondExtremeEnergy #BXE #ClimateChange #climatejustice #DakotaAccessPipeline #DAPL #decolonizethisplace #FERC #FirstNations #FossilFree #Fracking #IndigenousRights #KeepItIntheGround #Methane #NewYork #NoDAPL #NoPipelines #ResistSpectra #SacredLand #‎Solidarity #SpectraEnergy #SpectraPipeline #StandwithStandingRock #StopAIMpipeline #StopEnbridge #StopSpectra #WaterisLife ‪#‎weareallconnected‬ #WeSayNo #YOUAREHERE

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Thursday, September 8, 2016

Protest at Clinton Headquarters to Demand Open Debates

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The deceptive Commission on Presidential Debates, not really a commission but a front for the two establishment parties, should include all four candidates who are on enough ballots to win 270 Electoral College votes. Hillary Clinton as the head of the Democratic Party has the power to demand all four candidates on enough ballots to be included in the presidential debates.

A protest was held in front of the campaign headquarters of Hillary Clinton in Brooklyn, NY, calling upon her to support the inclusion in the upcoming presidential debates of all the candidates on enough ballots to win the Electoral College. Four candidates capable of winning majority of electoral college should be included in presidential debates.

This is part of an ongoing series of nationwide protests to open up the debates. Individuals planned to participate in nonviolent civil disobedience at the upcoming presidential debates if they are not opened up to candidates other than of the two parties that control the Commission on Presidential Debates.

#2016 #Activism #BreakThe2PartyTrap #Brooklyn #demonstration #GPBK #GreenParty #GreenPartyBrooklyn #GreenPartyNYC #HillaryClinton #ItsInOurHands #JillStein #LetJillDebate #NewYork #NYC #OpenDebates #PresidentialCandidate #PresidentialDebates #Protest #rally

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Prison reform groups urge Governor Cuomo to close Attica

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Attica Correctional Facility continues to operate as a real and symbolic epicenter of racist brutality and inhumane treatment in New York State. The history of the 1971 Attica uprising and the state’s violent suppression of that rebellion still infuse Attica’s walls and operations.

Prison reform advocates and activist groups gathered outside the New York Governor offices in Manhattan to urge Governor Cuomo, the New York State Legislature, and the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) to close Attica immediately and permanently.

The levels of staff brutality, racism, abuses of power, impunity, and overall environment of abuse and violence, continue to be pervasive at Attica. Unfortunately, Attica is not alone – and many other New York State prisons, including Clinton, Greene, Great Meadow, and others also have pervasive staff violence and abuse.

New York must close Attica, end violence and abuse across all prisons, reduce the number of prisons and people incarcerated, and free up resources currently wasted on caging people to build the things that help communities thrive: education, housing, healthcare, and human services.

#2016 #AndrewCuomo #attica #BeyondAttica #CloseAtticaNow #Cuomo #DecarcerateNY #DepartmentOfCorrections #DOCCS #EndMassIncarcerarion #GovernorCuomo #humanrights #InmateAbuse #MassIncarceration #NewYork #NYC #PrisonerRights #PrisonReform #Protest #racism #rally

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Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Long Island University Brooklyn locked out faculty in contract dispute

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Administrators have locked out faculty at Brooklyn's Long Island University campus in a dispute over a new contract.

Long Island University Brooklyn faculty members say they're being paid less than their colleagues at the Nassau County campus. LIU Administration informed that the new contract proposal is more than fair.

As a negotiating tactic, the Long Island University Brooklyn's administration locked out over 400 faculty members and university service employees represented by affiliated labor unions ahead of fall classes, which begin begin Wednesday, September 7, 2016. The lockout blocks professors from teaching or accessing their health care benefits.

Long Island University Brooklyn is assuring to provide well-qualified substitutes, but students say the dispute will upend the start of their semester. Long Island University students emphasize that's unacceptable alongside the cost of their tuition. In average Long Island University students pay around $1,000 per credit.

Student Body organizers will hold a protest in support of faculty ahead of the resumption of negotiations later this week.

#2016 #Activism #Brooklyn #FairContracts #FairWages #FF15 #FightFor15 #LaborDispute #LetUsTeach #LIU #LIUblackout #LIUBrooklynCampus #LIUcontracts #LIUfaculty #LIUlockdown #LongIslandUniversity #march #NewYork #NYC #PicketLine #Protest #PSCCUNY #rally #‎Solidarity #Union #WorkerRights

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Monday, September 5, 2016

49th annual New York Caribbean Carnival

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The 49th annual New York Caribbean Carnival peaks on Labor Day with the carnival parade along Eastern Parkway, all presented by the West Indian American Day Carnival Association.

This year’s carnival grand marshals include City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito; Guyana Consul General Barbara Atherly; Barbados U.N. Ambassador Keith (Tony) Marshall; and Conrad Ifill, president and CEO of Conrad’s Famous Bakery.

The West Indian Carnival is an annual celebration held on American Labor Day (the first Monday in September) in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in New York City. The main event is the West Indian Day Parade, which attracts between one and three million participants. The spectators and participators watch and follow the parade on its route along Eastern Parkway. Some of the Caribbean islands represented in the parade include Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, Barbados, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and Grenada, along with the mainland Caribbean countries such as Guyana, Suriname, and Belize.

#2016 #AndrewCuomo #BillDeBlasio #BradLander #Brooklyn #caribbean #Carnival #CharlesBarron #costumes #festival #GovernorCuomo #LaborDayCarnival #LatriceWalker #MayorDeBlasio #NewYork #NYC #NYCityCouncil #Parade #WestIndianCarnival #westindiandayparade2016 #WestIndianParade

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Sunday, September 4, 2016

32nd Annual Brazilian Day in New York

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Brazilian Day in NYC is one of the largest ethnic celebrations in The Big Apple, and a unique opportunity to embrace the Brazilian culture. This sensational celebration is one of the largest public events in New York City’s official summer calendar.

The festival began to celebrate Brazil's Independence Day. Since 1984, that small celebration has only grown, up to the point of attracting over1.5 million people in 2010, according to official information from NYPD.

People come from as close as Connecticut and as far as California. Perfectly bonding with the diverse population of New York City, people also come from Europe, Asia and Africa, to join in the festivities. Some travel in groups, they commute by bus, some fly in, and others simply drive hundreds of miles. No one wants to be left out of this party, which is now considered the world's biggest Brazilian event outside Brazil and one of the greatest ethnic events in the Big Apple.

The Brazilian Day festival is not simply a party celebration; it has become an opportunity to reach out to the Brazilian community in the United States. On that day, Brazilians join each other from different parts of the world, many coming from Brazil just to attend the festival, show their pride, advertise their culture and live their nostalgic and anonymous feeling of being an immigrant away from home.

#2016 #Art #BerkshireBateria #Brazil #BrazilianDay #ErikMcGregor #festival #NewYork #NYC #Photography #StreetFair

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