February 2016

On the 12th of February, many hundreds of labor activsts were in town for the National Jobs With Justice Conference. In late afternoon a massive march left the conference. The march divided into two, with the restarant workers going to the DC Chamber of Commerce and the retail workers marching on the National Retail Federation's DC headquarters. At the National Retail Federation, marchers stormed the building because of this organization's active lobbying against living wage legislation and legislation to stop "just in time" scheduling that leaves workers with unpredictable hours.

Video of labor activists storming the National Retail Federation(3 min)

by Grassroots Media DC
On January 26, 2016, the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent came to the District of Columbia to hear how African-Americans are being treated in the United States. Individuals were able to give testimony during a town hall meeting arranged by Pan African Community Action. Topics discussed included gentrification, police brutality, labor, environmental racism and gender oppressions. This video is a montage of testimonials regarding the many unarmed Blacks who've been killed by the police, most of whom don't get national attention.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbWtI3CgKPo

On the 6th of February, a "men's rights" meetup organized by Daryush "Roosh" Valizdeh was planned for the Cross Street Market in Baltimore, MD as one of 165 similar meetups on an "International Meetup Day." Roosh is infamous for calling for the legalization of rape as well as for preaching hatred against women in general and GLBT people in particular. The Baltimore Bloc organized a counterprotest against these pro-rape men, and not a single one of them could be found at their Baltimore meetup location.

Video from the Cross Street Market counterprotest against Roosh's "Men's Rights" meetup (1 min 14 sec)

On the 2nd of February, a number of immigrant rights groups held a "Stop the Raids" press conference outside the White House before delivering over 130,000 signed petitions. The petitions were actually accepted by two White House staffers and sniffed by the dog before being taken inside. Usually White House petition deliveries are refused, and often that leads to civil disobedience blockades. Before the delivery, speaker after speaker denounced the frankly terroristic raids on immigrants at their homes by ICE. Although not mentioned at this rally, many suspect Obama is doing this in response to Trump's hatemongering demands.

Video-clips from the speakers and the sucessful petition delivery