Category Archives: Events

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Event: Building Bridges Across the Generation Gap (5/19)

Date: May 19th, 2017
Time: 4:30pm-7:30pm
Location: Murphy Institute, 25 W. 43rd St., 18th Floor

REGISTER HERE

Believe it or not, Millennials and Baby Boomers have much in common, especially when it comes to the changing U.S. political economy. Join us for an intergenerational happy hour discussion unpacking the impact of America’s fractured social safety net across generations.

It’s no secret that today’s young adult generation faces unprecedented financial insecurity. Compared to when Baby Boomers were young, Millennials (born 1980 and after) have lower incomes, less savings, and lower net worth. They are also disproportionately likely to be uninsured, underemployed, or unemployed, and many are saddled with unprecedented levels of student debt. Continue reading Event: Building Bridges Across the Generation Gap (5/19) →

Events, Home, Labor Studies, Murphy News, Urban Studies

Event: Immigration Politics in the Trump Era (5/11)

Date: May 11th, 2017
Time: 10am-6pm
Location: Murphy Institute, 25 W. 43rd St., 18th Floor

RSVP HERE

Co-sponsored by the Scholars Strategy Network and Murphy Institute

This all-day conference will assess the unfolding immigration crisis, highlighting the perspectives of labor unions, worker centers, community organizations, and local government. The Trump administration’s efforts to restrict immigration, expand deportations, thwart sanctuary cities, and intensify border enforcement mark dramatic shifts in immigration politics and policies. This event convenes a range of national and local experts and leaders to explore the implications of these national shifts, especially for local immigrant communities and the possibilities for resistance.

Program

10:00am: Introductions and coffee

10:30am-12:00pm: Background and Context

Speakers:

  • Muzaffar Chishti – Migration Policy Institute, Director of MPI’s office at NYU School of Law
  • Mae Ngai – Columbia University, Professor of History and Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies

Moderator: Ruth Milkman, CUNY Graduate Center & Murphy Institute

12:00-1:00pm: Lunch (Provided)

1:00-2:30pm: Labor Responses

Speakers:

  • Esther Lopez – United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, International Secretary-Treasurer
  • Eliseo Medina – Service Employees International Union, Former International Secretary-Treasurer
  • Gonzalo Mercado – National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), New York City Regional Coordinator, and Executive Director at La Colmena – Staten Island Community Job Center
  • Javaid Tariq – New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Co-Founder and Senior Staff
  • Modesta Toribio – Make the Road New York, Senior Organizer

Moderator: Ed Ott, Murphy Institute/CUNY, Distinguished Lecturer of Labor Studies

2:30-3:00pm: Break

3:00-4:30pm: Community and Local Government Responses

Speakers:

  • 
Anu Joshi – NY State Immigrant Action Fund, Deputy Director
  • Abraham Paulos – Families for Freedom, former Executive Director
  • Donna Schaper – Judson Memorial Church, Senior Minister
  • Monica Sibri – CUNY DREAMers, Founder, and New York Fellow at IGNITE National

Moderator: Els de Graauw, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Baruch College-CUNY

4:30-6:00pm: Closing Reception

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Conference: Organizing 2.0 (4/7-8)

This Friday and Saturday, Organizing 2.0 returns to the Murphy Institute.

Dates: April 7th-8th, 2017
Time: 9am-5pm
Location: Murphy Institute, 25 W. 43rd St., 18th Floor

Registration link

Organizing 2.0 is an annual training event held in New York City. It is a volunteer run event offering training in online organizing, digital strategy and use of online tools.

Organizing 2.0 is a collective of communicators and online organizers working for unions and social justice activists. We run events, trainings, consult and promote uncommon interactions within and between our communities. We cross boundaries between labor, progressives, nonprofits, tech firms, faith communities and techies of all stripes.

View the 2017 Conference Schedule

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Livestream: Dilma Rousseff: The Attack on Democracy & Human Rights in Brazil (4/14)

Friday, April 14th | 6:30pm
Murphy Institute
25 W. 43 Street, 18th Floor
New York, NY

Can’t make it in person? Watch the livestream here:

CUNY’s Murphy Institute is pleased to host a presentation by Dilma Rousseff, former President of Brazil, co-organized with the Committee Defend Democracy in Brazil/New York.

Brazil’s former president, Rousseff − impeached in August 2016 in what many have called a “soft coup” based on what analysts almost universally have described as minor and highly irregular charges − will discuss the attack on, and current efforts to defend, democracy, labor rights, and social and economic justice in Brazil.

Brazil, whose young democracy was re-established in 1985 after 21 years of violent military rule, has achieved huge growth in the recent years, lifting 45 million people out of extreme poverty. Under the democratic leadership of the Workers’ Party, led initially by President Lula da Silva and subsequently by President Rousseff, Brazil saw dramatic changes towards a more equal society. Advancements under the Workers Party have included an enormous expansion of the middle class, steady increases in life expectancy, and the country’s removal in 2014 from the UN Map of Hunger.  Rousseff is currently undertaking an international tour to discuss with concerned people throughout the world what is at stake: Brazilian democracy, and the historic gains in the rights of workers, women, minorities, the LGBTQ community, communities of color and of the poor.

This event will also feature a photo exhibition highlighting important moments of the struggle from activist groups around the world.

Please join us for this historic event!

Press registration/inquiries: defenddemocracyinbrazil@gmail.com

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Livestream: The Resistance with Frances Fox Piven (3/23)

Thursday, March 23 | 6pm-8pm
Murphy Institute
25 W. 43 Street, 18th Floor
New York, NY

Can’t make it in person? Watch the livestream here:

Across the country, people are organizing in growing numbers. Who is participating? What kind of organizing is happening? Is this resistance different than what the world has seen before? What are the prospects of sustained resistance?

Join us for a discussion on the resistance with internationally renowned social scientist, scholar, and activist, Frances Fox Piven. She is a Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology, CUNY Graduate School, and Distinguished Lecturer in Labor Studies at the Murphy Institute, author and co-author of more than 200 articles published in academic journals, books, popular publications and journals of opinion since 1965. Her most recent book is Who’s Afraid of Frances Fox Piven? The Essential Writings of the Professor Glenn Beck Loves to Hate. Read more.

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Immigrant Workers Organized: Challenges, Achievements and the Trump Times

January 27, 2017
4:00 -6:00 PM
25 W 43rd St., 19th floor
New York, NY

RSVP: Gabriela Ceja gabrielaceja.morales@gmail.com

Worker centers and community-based organizations support low wage and immigrant workers, many of whom have survived a worldwide system of inequality and exploitation.

The day to day efforts from agricultural, to construction, to garment workers, and countless other kinds of laborers, are essential contributions to this society, benefiting every single person, especially the top 1%.

Protecting the rights and dignity of such an important but vulnerable population, especially under the threats of the new administration, is extremely necessary.

This Friday, we’ll come together to learn and discuss strategies to fight against discrimination and abuse, from people and organizations working towards creating effective networks to protect and improve immigrant, and all workers’ lives.

Catherine Barnett Immigrant Workers Organized: Challenges, Achievements and the Trump Times is the Director of Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY), an affiliate of ROC United, a national organization advocating for fair working conditions and wages for restaurant workers. Previously, she spent more than a decade assisting micro enterprises in New York City, from start-ups and informal home-based to incorporated brick and mortar establishments.

Denise G. Vivar Acevedo is a Mexican immigrant activist living in Queens. She has been involved in organizing against deportations and for immigrant and workers’ rights through her work with various pro-immigrant community organizations, unions, and worker’s centers.

Jazmin Cruz is currently a senior at John Jay College of Criminal Justice majoring in Political Science with a double minor in Economics and Latinx Studies. She is very active on campus with student organizations including the Youth Justice Club. She has been working with Make the Road for the past 5 years, currently in the Adult Education Department.

Gonzalo Mercado, a native of Chile, is the executive director and founder of La Colmena Community Job Center and the New York coordinator of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON). Gonzalo has over ten years of experience working with low wage immigrant workers through grassroots organizing, leadership and workforce development.  He has also established the first transnational project with immigrant workers from Puebla, Mexico living in Staten Island, NY that has resulted in the reunification of over 20 families after over 20 years of separation and the creation of the NewYorkTlan Transnational Festival. Most recently he facilitated the incubation of the first worker owned cooperative on Staten Island. Gonzalo also serves on the board of the New York Immigration Coalition and the North Star Fund.