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Home, New Labor Forum

New Labor Forum Highlights: Oct 16th, 2017

The New Labor Forum has launched a bi-weekly newsletter on current topics in labor, curated by the some of the most insightful scholars and activists in the labor world today. Check out some highlights from the latest edition below.

Nearly a month ago, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico at the speed of 150 miles per hour. To this day, water, food, electrical power, and fuel remain scarce on the island. As Naomi Klein pointed out in a recent speech before the British Labour Party, this disaster starkly encapsulates a multifaceted global crisis, combining the toll of climate change, gross economic inequality, the weakening of democratic institutions, racism and neo-colonialism.

In this installment of the New Labor Forum newsletter, we offer a video link to Klein’s incisive talk. We also include an article from New Labor Forum by Jennifer Wolff assessing the Puerto Rican labor movement’s response to the debt crisis which, combined with Hurricane Maria, has now increased the volume of calls for the privatization of essential public services on the island. The island’s colonial status, as neither a U.S. state nor an independent country, continues to put it in a netherworld beyond even the most basic democratic means of resolving these calamities. In a speech we include here, New Labor Forum Editorial Board member Juan Gonzalez provides a background for understanding the peculiar vice grip Puerto Rico found itself in well before Maria made landfall.

Table of Contents

  1. Naomi Klein’s Speech to Labour Conference/ British Labour Party
  2. Debtors’ Island: How Puerto Rico Became a Hedge Fund Playground/ Jennifer Wolff, New Labor Forum
  3. Juan González Speech on Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis/ Democracy Now!

Photo by Sgt. Jose Ahiram Diaz-Ramos via US Department of Defense. The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

Home, Murphy News

In the Aftermath of Hurricane Maria

As the tragic aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria continues, we in the Murphy community are reminded that the struggles of Puerto Rico residents are our struggles as well. Last week, the New York Times featured an article highlighting community efforts in New York to aid with disaster relief, and quoted Murphy student John Carlos Rosario:

“There are people in the center of the island with no gas, no water,” said John Carlos Rosario, 25, a Puerto Rican student at the City University of New York. He finally was able to contact his girlfriend in Puerto Rico after six days, only to find out that she was also out of cash. She went to three towns, and no banks had cash. “We need rescue, we need help,” he said.

Our thoughts go out to all of those both within and outside of the Murphy community who have been and continue to be affected by the disaster.

Read the full article here, and read this primer from ProPublica to learn how best to donate after a disaster.

Photo by Sgt. Jose Ahiram Diaz-Ramos via US Department of Defense. The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.