seattleDIRT

Resisting Empire at Home and Abroad:
Class Struggle and Resistance in the US

Don Grinde, 31 year Boeing worker, member IAM*

Camilo Mejía, Board Chair of Iraq Vets Against the War, first veteran to publicly refuse to redeploy to Iraq

Jesse Hagopian, Seattle Education Association*, and International Socialist Organization

Closing plenary of the Northwest Socialist Conference
www.nwsocialistconference.org

Saturday November 8, 2008 • 7-9p.m.
Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center
104 17th Ave. S, Seattle, WA 98144
$10 at the door

As the economy goes into the worst crisis since the Great Depression, banks and billionaires are being bailed out while workers continue to lose their homes and jobs. A majority of Americans oppose the war in Iraq, but instead of bringing the troops home, both candidates want to send more troops to Afghanistan and expand the war.

U.S. aggression has inflicted a humanitarian catastrophe-from Iraq, to Afghanistan, and beyond-with millions of people killed or turned into refugees. American troops continue to suffer and die, while schools and hospitals fall apart

But ordinary working people have the power to challenge corporate greed and US military exploits abroad-and ultimately to change the system that produces them. We only have to look at the courageous workers in the International Association of Machinists (IAM) who are on strike against the corporate giant Boeing, to see the potential power of organized workers.

A new resistance needs to be built from the ground up. To build it, we need to hear the stories the mainstream media refuse to tell: the stories of war resisters, rank and file union activists, and community organizers who are resisting the attacks at home and abroad ever day.

Resisting Empire starts with us.

Featuring:

CAMILO MEJIA
Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejía was the first veteran to publicly refuse to redeploy to Iraq. Mejía participated in the invasion of Iraq, and he refused to return to his unit after a two-week furlough because he believed the war was unjust, arguing that “no soldier should go to Iraq and give his life for oil.” Mejía was sentenced to a bad conduct discharge and one year of hard labor. He is the Board Chair of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), and is the author of a memoir, Road >From ar Ramadi (Haymarket Books, 2007).

DON GRINDE

Don Grinde is a 31-year crane operator at Boeing and a veteran union activist in the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers*. This strike at Boeing is his fifth time on strike. He helped to lead a “vote no” campaign on the last Boeing contract proposal. He will speak about the lessons of the Boeing strike and why solidarity is key to rebuilding the labor movement. He runs a rank-and-file blogspot: http://www.751ranknfile.blogspot.com/

JESSE HAGOPIAN
Jesse Hagopian is a teacher in the Seattle Public Schools, a member of the Seattle Education Association* and has been an activist and a voice for many progressive struggles. Jesse served as campaign manager for Aaron Dixon’s 2006 Green Party senatorial candidacy, with the theme, “Out of war and into our communities.” Jesse was a leader in the Troops Home now Coalition that organized a huge turnout to shutdown the military recruiting center in the Central District of Seattle. As a member of the Ehren Watada organizing committee, Jesse helped to build support across the NW for the courageous lieutenant who was the first officer to refuse to redeploy to Iraq. His writing in defense of public education has appeared in theSeattle Times and the Seattle PI and Commondreams.org. His essays against war and racism have appeared in Counter Punch and Socialist Worker.

*For Identification purposes only