"Che" Movie Night with SDS

Thursday, May 6, 2010
7:00pm - 9:00pm
UWM Union Fireside Lounge
2200 E Kenwood Blvd.

Che and a band of Cuban exiles (led by Fidel Castro) reach the Cuban shore from Mexico in 1956. Within two years, they mobilized popular support and an army and toppled the U.S.-friendly regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Benicio Del Toro
Steven Soderbergh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqTw2dtVQzw

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=309852166839&index=1

Celebrate International Worker's Day with SDS

Monday, May 3, 2010
11:00am - 1:00pm
Spaights Plaza


Join SDS in Spaights Plaza to celebrate International Workers' Day (May Day) on Monday, May 3rd.

We will celebrate the history of the labor movement, as well as recent labor and education rights struggles in our community.

- Food
- Music
- Art
- Labor leaders speak
- Education rights Leaders speak

*All donations and proceeds benefit the Milwaukee 16*

Cosponsored by MEChA

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=114571145232650&index=1

March for Education Not Deportation!

SDS will join Voces de la Frontera on Saturday May 1st to march for immigrant and workers' rights!

* We will carpool from the UWM Union - Meet at 11:30 am to catch a ride to the event with SDS *

We will meet at 12pm at Voces de la Frontera (1027 S. 5th St.), then continue on a march through Milwaukee to fight for:

Just legalization now!
No more deportations!
Driver's Card!
DREAM Act!
Good Jobs!

Saturday, May 1, 2010
11:15am - 3:00pm
1027 s. 5th st Milwaukee wi

For more information call (414) 643-1620

Pat Gowins of Welfare Warriors Speaks

Wednesday, April 28, 2010
7:00pm
Bolton 150 UWM Union

Pat Gowins is a long-time activist and mother, working on issues of welfare and poverty here in this city of Milwaukee for many years.
She is a leading member of Welfare Warriors, an organization that brings together single mothers and people of all ages living in poverty in Milwaukee, and an organization that produces and distributes the Internationally known publication "Mother Warriors Voice"
Thousands of organizations of urban poor receive and write for this publication and share ideas, stories, and education on the issues of people living in poverty on welfare or otherwise.

Pat will be educating us on the issues of big business in welfare and the great problems all of us face in Milwaukee and across the country while decades of slashes have been made to the social safety net.

Come learn more about a rarely discussed topic: the realities of welfare workers, and learn it straight from people who know first-hand what poverty in this city looks like.

This event is brought to you by Students for a Democratic Society in conjunction with Progressive Students of Milwaukee

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=119479328069056&index=1

Marx in Soho - A Play by Howard Zinn - Coming to UWM

UWM EVENT (THURSDAY) IS FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Thursday, April 15, 2010
7:00pm
UWM - Curtain Hall Room 175

Howard Zinn’s “Marx in Soho” portrays the return of Marx. Embedded in some secular afterlife where intellectuals, artists, and radicals are sent, Marx is given permission by the administrative committee to return to Soho London to have his say. But through a bureaucratic mix–up, he winds up in SOHO in New York. From there the audience is given a rare glimpse of a Marx seldom talked about; Marx the man. The Play offers an entertaining and thorough introduction to a person who knows little about Marx’s life, while also offering valuable insight to students of his ideas.

Howard Zinn’s Marx alone occupies the stage. “Marx has different voices. The actor has to show Marx’s outrage at social injustice, express the pedantic Marx, the vindictive Marx, Marx, the loving family man, Marx as Humorists, and a Marx that can laugh at his enemies”

Jerry Levy, who teaches sociology at Marlboro and plays Marx, says the one-man show examines not only the political issues of Marx’s day, but also his interpersonal ones with his wife and daughter. It points to the relevance of those issues today, in modern life, according to Levy. Karl Marx is alive, well, and on his way to talk about the fall of communism, his life, and the relevance of the collapse of the Soviet Union to today’s world through this play.

Sponsored by Progressive Students of Milwaukee, UWM Students of a Democratic Society, Peace Action Wisconsin and Jews for Justice

FRIDAY NIGHT SHOWING:

Friday, April 16, 7:30 PM
Friends Meeting House, 3224 N. Gordon Place, Milwaukee

Directions: Turn east on Auer, off of Humboldt Ave., to Gordon Place, just west of and overlooking the Milwaukee River.

$10 General - $ 2 Off Advance Purchase
$ 5 Student/limited income
A benefit for Peace Action–Wisconsin

For more information: 414/964-5158 • info@peaceactionwi.org
www.peaceactionwi.org • www.levyarts.com

SDS Movie Night: "Wounded Knee"

April 6th - Bolton Hall rm b52 - 7pm

On the night of February 27, 1973, fifty-four cars rolled, horns blaring, into a small hamlet on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Within hours, some 200 Oglala Lakota and American Indian Movement (AIM) activists had seized the few major buildings in town and police had cordoned off the area. The occupation of Wounded Knee had begun. Demanding redress for grievances—some going back more than 100 years—the protesters captured the world's attention for 71 gripping days.

With heavily armed federal troops tightening a cordon around meagerly supplied, cold, hungry Indians, the event invited media comparisons with the massacre of Indian men, women, and children at Wounded Knee almost a century earlier. In telling the story of this iconic moment, the final episode of We Shall Remain will examine the broad political and economic forces that led to the emergence of AIM in the late 1960s as well as the immediate events—a murder and an apparent miscarriage of justice—that triggered the takeover. Though the federal government failed to make good on many of the promises that ended the siege, the event succeeded in bringing the desperate conditions of Indian reservation life to the nation's attention. Perhaps even more important, it proved that despite centuries of encroachment, warfare, and neglect, Indians remained a vital force in the life of America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoiLDXdSa0k

Report from Rally/Meeting with Chancellor

Over 70 students, professors and teachers assistants picketed outside the chancellor’s office, as four organizers met inside with the chancellor to demand that he drop the threat of academic punishment for the 16 student protesters who were arrested during the March 4 National Day of Action for Education Rights.

“15 police in riot gear were inside the building protecting the chancellor,” noted Students for a Democratic Society organizer Rachel Matteson who met with the chancellor. “We won two basic demands today, which were to have the chancellor participate in a public forum about the demands of the UWM Education Rights Campaign and to have more investigation into the excessive use of police force on March 4, but the academic punishment of the protesters is still uncertain and the much larger struggle for student and worker rights must continue.”

Many students report that Chancellor Santiago had ready three swat vans, two police wagons, 20-30 police in riot gear and six cops on horseback - all hidden behind the university dormitories.

SDS is excited to see the chancellor finally meeting some demands of the campaign, and we hope to continue the positive movement. We are still demanding that all charges be dropped against the 16! Education is a Right!

5 Events to Support the 16 / Education Rights!

Friends in the Struggle,

The fight for education rights has made a tremendous leap forward this week, but we still need your support now more than ever as reactionary forces are on the attack.  16 people were arrested by repressive and overly aggressive police a week ago, and we are planning several events in the coming days and weeks to raise the issue of education rights, and justice for the 16!

TONIGHT (Wed) 7pm, Bolton 150
"What Really Happened on March 4th?"
Chancellor Santiago presented his side of the story through major media outlets and an all-student e-mail. In his version, a rabid mob of students attacked the police and bombarded Chapman Hall with “ice chunks.”  Now it’s time to hear what REALLY happened, from people who were actually there. Come to the town hall/teach-in to talk to eye witnesses and participants or share what you saw.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=353222015689

THURSDAY
Call the Chancellor!
Please call the Chancellor’s office in support of the UWM Education Rights Campaign and against police aggression at the protest on March 4th!  Call the Chancellor' s office at: 414-229-4331  Email at: ces95@uwm.edu
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=357166968804&index=1

THURSDAY
Education Rights Vigil
At this time, Chancellor Santiago has agreed to discuss with ONLY 3 students about only academic punishment of the 16 arrested protesters.  This will be a silent vigil on the outside of Chapman Hall to show solidarity with the Milwaukee 16 and to reflect on the fact that there are powerful forces out there that would like to see students and worker voices silenced.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=397175110800&index=1

SUNDAY
Fundraiser Potluck for the Milwaukee 16!
The Cream City Collectives (732 E. Clarke St.) are hosting a fundraiser potluck for the Milwaukee 16 this Sunday @ 7pm.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=380092841807&index=1

TUESDAY (March 16th)
"Know Your Rights Training"
with the ACLU Student Alliance
This is an important training to understand your rights when protesting, and what to do if you are arrested.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=370540214344&index=1

SDS Condemns Repression of Education Rights Rally 

Drop All Charges Against the Milwaukee 16!  

 
Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) is proud of the 250 students and workers who stood up for the March 4th National Day of Action to Defend Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).

The university administration is intimidated by the UWM Education Rights Campaign, an alliance that Milwaukee SDS helped create of over 20 organizations that are demanding to lower high-level administrative salaries, democratize the school, and establish just policies for workers and students.  

Milwaukee SDS condemns the police who used violence and arrests to silence the protest. Furthermore, Milwaukee SDS condemns the university administration for responding to our just demands by defending this repression.  “We condemn the university administration for silencing our message by portraying student protestors as violent,” said SDS Milwaukee member Jacob Flom.

Students and Workers Denied Access to Chapman Hall

The demonstration peacefully marched to the Chancellor's office to deliver petitions and make a statement that students and workers will fight cuts to education. Instead of acknowledging the protest, the Chancellor and university administration locked their office doors and called the police, watching from the windows of Chapman Hall as students were maced and beat up by campus police.

The media did not cover the hundreds of students who were blocked out of a public building by UWM Police Chief Michael Marzion, who taunted protesters by saying it was his personal decision to do so. Chief Marzion, who can be seen in video footage kicking and shoving protesters, allowed police forces to use violence and mace on students and workers. 

Administration Ignores Demands of Students and Workers

Chancellor Santiago still has not addressed the demands of the Education Rights Campaign.  Instead he has chosen to support the police’s use of mace against non-violent protesters and the arrests of innocent students and bystanders.

Rachel Matteson, another SDS member states, “He has attempted to delegitimize the campaign by circulating lies about the conduct of the protest that he did not even attend, another refusal to hear student voices.  He continues to criminalize students in the media and by university e-mail.” 

This only furthers students’ and workers’ frustration with a university administration that sits on six-figure salaries, caters to wealthy investors, and continues to ignore those who are struggling for basic rights in a time of economic crisis and cut backs to education.   In addition, the 15 people charged for demonstrating on March 4th face a total of $4,255.50 in fines—almost a semester of tuition at UWM! The administration is victimizing already financially struggling students with these charges. 

We view the university administration as hypocrites when they talk about student violence because this is the same university administration that turns their backs to violence as they create business deals with war profiteers.
 
Racial Profiling

"I came to this rally to make a statement for education rights," stated Brien Roufus. "I was the only African American in a peaceful crowd and I was singled out in an aggressive arrest."

Milwaukee SDS deamnds immediate justice for protestor Brien Roufus. Roufus, as seen on video, was a peaceful protester and backing away from police before UWM Police Chief Michael Marzion walked straight up to him and said "you look like the perfect person to arrest." Zipping on plastic cuffs and jerking Roufus into Chapman Hall for arrest, Roufus' wrists were cuffed so hard his wrists bled.

Milwaukee SDS Demands Justice

1. A public hearing with Chancellor Santiago to hear the demands of the UWM Education Rights Campaign and to discuss the effects of the economic crisis upon this university.   
2. All charges be dropped against those arrested and charged
3. Resignation of UW-Milwaukee Police Chief Michael Marzion for excessive use of force

Education Rights Movement Perseveres 

Our demands give the public university administration the opportunity to stand with students and workers instead of with the private businesses responsible for this economic crises. On March 4th, the university administration got a small taste of what it’s like when they stand on the side of the bankers and politicians that expect students and workers to pay for their economic crisis.

The details of the March 4th protest overshadowed the plight of the students and workers at UWM who continue to bear the weight of the economic recession as Chancellor Santiago and other high level administrators maintain six figure salaries and cater to the interests of the bankers and politicians.

The events that occurred reveal the administration’s refusal to acknowledge the struggles being faced by students and workers.  Chancellor Santiago still will not address the demands of the Education Rights Campaign.  The administration’s legitimization of violence used against the protestors and the lies that were constructed to place the blame on the students and workers is unacceptable. 

SDS member Molly Ubbesen asserts, “We will continue to fight for democracy and justice at our University.”    
 
Education is a right! 
Drop all charges against the Milwaukee 16!