The following article is written by Katrina Josberger, a student from Coxsackie-Athens High School.
Living our comfortable, busy lives as Americans we often forget an entire world exists outside our country. We overlook the basic structure of our economy and how most of the material products purchased in department stores and apparel shops are made using cheap, inhumane labor in India, Cambodia, and Bangladesh. Millions of people, mostly young women, work in factories all seven days of the week, often clocking over 100 hours. Women are forbidden from taking a maternity leave, like Bangladeshi worker Morium Begum who lost her unborn baby at seven months when she was forced to work through illness and exhaustion. The Ha-Meem Group, the factory company employing Begum and 30,000 other garment workers, produce 70% of the apparel for Gap and Old Navy. Workers are paid 20 to 24 cents an hour, denied paid maternity leave, banned from organizing workers’ unions, and physically beaten. They are refused basic human rights and live in poverty, unable to afford food despite working 14 to 22 hour shifts. How can this be permitted? These women are being treated worse than working animals and are desperately in need of someone to speak up for them.
On September 12 I headed over to Goergen Hall on the University of Rochester Campus for a panel discussion titled "Block that Metaphor? Corporate Personhood Before and After Citizens United". The panel consisted of Lynn Stout from Cornell Law School, Greg Urban of the University of Pennsylvania, and Elana Shever from Colgate University. It was moderated by Robert Foster at the University of Rochester.
Lynn Stout studies corporations from a legal perspective. She started off by emphasizing that corporations are real, not a metaphor. The term "personhood" refers to a set of legal rights that allow a corporation to, for instance, have the right to own property in its own name. She's enamored of the idea of corporations which give people the ability to perform long term projects that human beings would never do.
Durand-Eastman Park. So peaceful and picturesque. This time of year the autumn colors are brilliant. And the water is so calm and reflective; the landscape seems to gently float up into the sky. This could be heaven.
On the edge of one great Lake Ontario, two much smaller lakes, Durand and Eastman are named for the two men who donated the land for this beautiful park. In the early 1900′s Dr. Henry S. Durand owned a summer camp here. He and his friend George Eastman saw a need for a public park with access to the beach. So they bought a number of farms around the Durand property, and in 1907 they offered the land to the City of Rochester.
On September 29th, Rochester Red & Black hosted a discussion about the influences that Anarchist ideals had on the Occupy Wall Street Movement. The talk was led by two authors that have recently written on the subject, Mark Bray and Nathan Schneider.
In the current government shutdown and bond default crisis, the extreme left-wing position, the one that House Speaker John Boehner says would amount to “unconditional surrender,” would be to allow the government to function normally and pay its bills under the “sequester” budget. This is the austerity budget proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, which at the time a surrender to the priorities of the Republican right wing.
On October 24, 2013, members of Enough is Enough, along with others in the community gave testimony of Rochester Police Officers behaving aggressively and with brutality at a forum organized by The United Christian Leadership Ministry of WNY, The Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, the NAACP, Spiritus Christi Anti-Racism Coalition.
About 25 veterans and supporters gathered and rang bells outside the Rochester Armed Forces Recruiting Center at 11:11 AM this Veterans Day. Despite it being a national holiday the recruiting center was open. The rally was organized by Veterans for Peace and Band of Rebels, a local activist group comprised mainly of retirees.
Blog #22: The 13th Amendment—Prison Slavery and Mass Incarceration
The Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads as follows:
Section 1. Slavery prohibited. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
NYS SUPREME COURT Rules Rochester Red Light Camera Law Is Constitutional
In a decision released late Friday, November 1, Supreme Court Justice Scott Odorisi ruled against plaintiff Lawrence Krieger in his lawsuit against Rochester's red-light camera scheme.
In a twenty-seven page opinion Justice Odorisi ruled that the scheme did not create quasi-criminal liability and that the due process rights in the U.S. Constitution are not violated by the City's enforcement procedures.
A panel discussion on the Town of Greece v. Galloway, a local legislative prayer case that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on November 6, 2013.
FEATURING:
HEATHER WEAVER, Esq. Senior Staff Attorney American Civil Liberties Union ***The ACLU filed an amicus in support of the plaintiffs.
BRETT HARVEY, Esq. Senior Counsel Alliance Defending Freedom ***The Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the Town of Greece.
Submitted by T. Forsyth / photos: Michele Cunningham on Tue, 2013-10-29 14:57
On July 28, 2013, Michele Cunningham (formerly Fineout) walked into the Public Safety Building's main lobby at 185 Exchange Boulevard around 5:30PM. She was upset that police had racially targeted, harassed and then arrested her friend Juan, while they were walking down East Main Street earlier in the day. Because of the unjust behavior of the police, she found herself at the Public Safety Building that evening attempting to bail him out.
On May 1st, 2013, Benny Warr was waiting for the bus on Jefferson Ave. when police arrived to clear the block. Doing nothing wrong, he repeated he was waiting for the bus. He was then violently thrown from his wheelchair and brutalized by officers Joseph M. Ferrigno II, Anthony R. Liberatore, and Sgt.Mitchell R. Stewart II. Mr. Warr's experience is not singular. Police brutality occurs all over the city. In response, the community screams "Enough Is Enough!" Click here for more information!
![Durand-Eastman Park, Rochester, NY. [PHOTO: RochesterSubway.com]](http://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester-durand-eastman-park-01.jpg)
