Home ›

NC: Join the Pots and Spoons Protest #May16NC
Jeremy Sprinkle @
Tuesday, May 15, 2012 - 11:55am

About the cacerolazo

A form of popular protest that originated in Latin America which consists of a group of people creating noise by banging pots, pans, and other utensils to call for attention. In cacerolazos from Chile and Argentina to Iceland, Ireland, Greece, and even Syria, people have come together to challenge power and affect change.

It is time to bring the spirit of the cacerolazo to North Carolina, where our out-of-control state legislature has busied itself since the 2010 election with catering to corporate interests and right-wing ideologues, gutting funding for public education, endangering women’s health care, putting the rights of unmarried couples up for popular vote, and attempting to lock some groups of voters out of the political process.

Let's welcome them back to an unforgettable protest!

When lawmakers return to town on Wednesday, May 16, North Carolinians outraged and disappointed at actions taken by our General Assembly to enrich the few at the expense of the rest will converge on Bicentennial Mall at 10 A.M. for a cacerolazo – a Pots & Spoons Protest – the first-of-its-kind protest of our out-of-control state legislature.

Read more...
0 Comments
activism AFL-CIO Amendment One bicentennial mall cacerolazo Extremists labor Lawmakers legislature nc North Carolina Occupy Out-of-Control pots and spoons protest Raleigh Right-wing Solidarity
898

NC Republican Party outsources its attacks on DNC to New Jersey
Jeremy Sprinkle @
Thursday, December 1, 2011 - 4:23pm

This lesson in hypocrisy brought to you by the letters “G-O-P”

This post originally appeared on AFLCIONC.org.

On November 29, the Republican-controlled General Assembly adopted an error-filled, non-binding resolution lambasting the DNC for not doing more to hire in-state, non-union companies to work the 2012 Convention in Charlotte. It falsely claims that the Democratic National Convention is actively trying not to hire North Carolina workers.

“This is such an unnecessary resolution,” objected Rep. Paul Luebke because, in fact, “the DNC has an agreement to hire local people as much as possible.” To say otherwise is “simply not true,” he added.

Charlotte-area Rep. Becky Carney blasted Speaker Thom Tillis for wasting time and taxpayer dollars for a special session on a resolution having “nothing to do with the critical issues in this state right now. We need to be up here talking about jobs for every North Carolinian that’s unemployed,” said Carney. “And what have we done here for three days? We have not talked about jobs.”

Unfortunately for North Carolina workers, state Republicans can’t be bothered to put their money where their mouth is. According to filings with the Federal Elections Commission, the NCGOP has outsourced its video production, logo design, and web services to a company in New Jersey. Specifically, the NCGOP has paid one Mr. Riccardo Diaz, the Director of Media Affairs for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, $5,589.90 to produce web videos attacking the DNC and President Obama, to design the logo for its 2012 campaign, and to create the website for itself and for its own state convention!

How’s that for chutzpah?

Read more...
1 Comment
Becky Carney charlotte dnc FEC jobs Paul Luebke Republican hypocrisy Ricky Diaz Thom Tillis unions
1,839

NC: This Land Was Made For You and Me
Jeremy Sprinkle @
Friday, October 7, 2011 - 6:49pm

Occupy Wall Street has been an inspiration to me as it has been to many. Many people - tens of thousands of people - now feel empowered by the idea that, as Woody Guthrie sung to us, this land is our land, so we need not be afraid to occupy it, to take it back from the 1% who would steal it from the other 99% of us. So in that spirit, I want to share this video I put together for work.

Read more...
2 Comments
AFL-CIO labor North Carolina unions We Are One Woody Guthrie
1,087

NC GOP to workers walking picket line, “Let them eat cake.”
Jeremy Sprinkle @
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - 11:08am

This is a cross-post from AFLCIONC.org

Protesting GOP budgets which give to the rich, take from the rest

About three dozen North Carolinians who are fed up with calls by Republican leaders for everyone else to sacrifice so they and their corporate campaign backers can continue to sacrifice nothing walked a picket line outside the headquarters of the North Carolina Republican Party in Raleigh, on April 29.

Picketers carried signs that read, “Corporate Welfare: GOP Approved”, “Hands off my Medicare”, “GOP: No Millionaires Left Behind”, “GOP Loyalty: Wall St, not Workers”, and “Shame on Ellmers” – referring to U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-2nd).

With no apparent sense of irony, a representative of the NC GOP came outside during our picket and offered picketers some cake. Yes, you read that right. The Republican response to picketers upset by their immoral state and federal budgets which give to the rich by taking from the rest was, “Let them eat cake.”

Read more...
4 Comments
AFL-CIO Cake Corporate Welfare NC GOP picketers Republican Budget workers
1,505