By ERNIE GOTTA — STAMFORD, Conn. — On Nov. 19, workers at the Sheraton Hotel here launched a public campaign to form a union. Over 100 workers celebrated their new union with embraces and cheers that filled the courtyard of the St. John’s Episcopal Church as they gathered before making their way to the hotel.…
By ERNIE GOTTA Union hotel workers across the country are fighting and striking against an all-out offensive of hotel owners to crush the standard of living won through decades of struggle. In Chicago nearly all hotels in the city went out on strike. After three weeks, hotel bosses were ready to come to the table…
By ROZWELL SIMMONS — NEW HAVEN, CONN. — In a leaked memo published by The New York Times on Oct. 21, the Trump administration called for federal agencies to “define sex as male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with.” Alarmed by this persecuting and transphobic policy, members…
By RUWAN MUNASINGHE — HARTFORD, Conn. — On Dec. 14, 2017, Hartford lost one of its greatest legends when 20-year-old Zoe Dowdell—also known as Gangstalicious—was shot and killed by New Britain police. Caleb Tisdol and Noah Young (also known as “Skinny), the others in the car, were convicted on various charges and are currently incarcerated.…
By ERNIE GOTTA The Connecticut Secretary of State’s office is threatening to rule Iraq War veteran Fred Linck, the Socialist Action candidate for U.S. Senate, off the ballot. Dozens of petitions are still in the hands of town clerks (likely containing hundreds of uncounted signatures), and a cursory examination of a sample of counted signatures…
By ERNIE GOTTA Hospitality workers from Local 217 Unite Here are hitting the picket lines across Connecticut this summer in solidarity with their coworkers waging contract fights at hotels in Hartford, New Haven, and Stamford. At a time when most unions are making concessions to the bosses, Local 217 has drawn a line in the…
By ERWIN FREED On May 8, CT Bail Fund called a rally outside of York Correctional Institute, a women’s prison in Niantic, Conn. Eleven other groups were listed as co-sponsors on the events facebook page and around 40 people showed up in solidarity. The rally was called in conjunction with the Bail Fund’s successful effort…
By UCONN YOUTH FOR SOCIALIST ACTION Since Oct. 19, 2017, University of Connecticut’s Graduate Employee Union-UAW Local 6950 has been in negotiations with the university administration for a second collective bargaining agreement. Under the leadership of university President Susan Herbst’s administration and the state appointed Board of Directors, the university has hired the union-busting law…
By DANIEL ADAM Ten years after the crash of 2008, a refreshing growth in unionization and militant strikes shows promise of developing into a new wave of working-class action. This follows years of struggle against police murder and a wave of protest that began with 4 million marching for women’s rights. Tens of thousands flooded…
WEST HARTFORD, Conn.—On Feb. 24, around 170 crowded into the Elmwood Community Center here to hear, as the promotional material described the event, “Experts and activists exploring some of the toughest questions facing the climate movement.” Jacqui Patterson, the director of the national NAACP’s Environmental and Justice Program, told the stories of individual people of…
By ERNIE GOTTA — STAMFORD, Conn. — Workers at the Stamford Hilton Hotel walked off the job Thursday, March 8, to strike for a good contract. They picketed in front of the entry way for nearly two hours, chanting, “No contract, No Peace.” [See the video: https://www.facebook.com/melissa.abbe.7/videos/10214115775642871/ ] Members of International Women’s Strike Connecticut joined…
By MITCH LINCK Fred “Mitch” Linck is the Socialist Action candidate for the U.S. Senate from Connecticut. I want to talk a little about what I learned from my time in Iraq, and how it can help us understand our situation today. By the time I was 17, there was no one who could tell…
By ERNIE GOTTA (Socialist Action) and WILLIAM LEWIS (Left Voice) On Monday, Dec. 4, workers at the Hilton Stamford Hotel voted overwhelmingly in favor of forming a union. With 110 for and only five against, it was a great victory for workers’ power and promises a better future for over 120 workers. The workers decided…
By UCONN YOUTH FOR SOCIALIST ACTION On Dec. 1, University of Connecticut (UConn) students organized a march and rally in response to their perception of the university administration’s inadequate action in relation to a white nationalist speaker on campus four days earlier. That night, Nov. 28, the UConn College Republicans hosted alt-right spokesperson Lucian Wintrich.…
By CONNECTICUT STUDENTS — STAMFORD, Conn. — On Nov. 27, a delegation of students from across Connecticut arrived to tell management at the Hilton Hotel in Stamford that they stand in solidarity with the workers organizing a union. The union vote will take place Dec. 4 after three weeks of management’s anti-union intimidation campaign. We…
By ERNIE GOTTA — STAMFORD, Conn. — It’s 9 p.m. on a Monday night, and Marvin Castaneda, a union banquet server at the Hyatt hotel, is making phone calls to Hilton hotel workers. Initially, he leaves messages. Any unrecognizable number the Hilton workers won’t pick up. They think it might be the company or one of…
Connecticut: ‘Solution is Socialism’ By KEITH LESLIE — NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — On Nov. 4, Socialist Action Connecticut and the Central Connecticut State University Youth for Socialist Action held their second annual conference, entitled “The Solution is Socialism.” More than 100 workers, students, and activists from as far away as Alabama turned out for a…
By ERNIE GOTTA In the coming weeks Hilton Hotel workers in Stamford, Conn., will likely face a serious attempt by the bosses to bust their campaign for union recognition. In past union drives the bosses have paid millions of dollars to law firms that specialize in union busting. The owners of the hotel would rather…
By HENRY ERIC and C.J. LAPOINTE “Over 85% of us have decided to form this union!” Lupe Martinez, a banquet server, declared as a mass of workers from the Hilton Hotel in Stamford, Conn., confronted General Manager Robert Langevin with their demand for union recognition. The workers’ cheers filled the lobby as Langevin stood there,…
By ANN MONTAGUE On this year’s Labor Day, Sept. 4, there were more marches and rallies than in previous years. Several U.S. cities had large labor actions anchored in fast-food walkouts. Britain saw its first strikes against McDonald’s Corporation; activists chose U.S. Labor Day as a nod to the birthplace of the Fight For 15…
By CHRISTINE MARIE Many cheered when Connecticut joined other states in proclaiming that they would stick to the Paris Agreement although the U.S. was pulling out. Unfortunately, the limits of that gesture became clear very soon. On July 26, the Connecticut Department of Energy and the Environment released a long-awaited report, a draft Comprehensive Energy Strategy. The…
By CHRIS HUTCHINSON The police shooting of 18-year-old Ra’Shamel Rogers on March 9 in Waterbury, Conn., has mobilized community members in support of his family to demand answers and a transparent investigation. Ra’Shamel was unarmed and shot three times, twice in the abdomen and once in the lungs. Police are trying to justify the shooting…
By SUSAN ROGERS “To Change Everything, It Takes Everyone!” Under this mantra of the new climate justice movement, 400 Connecticut activists joined a “March for Jobs, Justice, and a Livable Earth” on Dec. 3. Picket signs carried the slogans voted up by the planning committee and included: Emergency Transition to 100% Renewable Energy Grid! Mass…
By CHRISTINE MARIE — NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — An ambitious Youth for Socialist Action educational conference drew close to 100 participants, including students from at least six different colleges, to Central Connecticut State University on Saturday, Oct. 22. The conference was opened by the past president of the CCSU YSA, David Kiely, who said that…
