Catching the Fair Wage Wave

Here in the far west we have cold water and some awe inspiring spots to ride the waves.



The folks here in Eureka California have been riding the wave for higher wages that began in 2012 in places like Long Beach and San Jose continuing through the fight for 15 that is rising across the land.

Donate

In 2013 the Eureka Fair Wage Act rode a wave of thousands of signatures on to the November 2014 ballot. “The Minimum Wage Ordinance” will create a two tier minimum wage with larger employers paying $12 an hour pegged to raise with the cost of living. The smaller employers, 24 or less will pay the state minimum going to $9 an hour this July and to $10 by 2016 in a bill already signed into law by our Governor in 2013.

In order to pass the Eureka Fair Wage Act, we need your support.
A group of fifteen hard-working people gathered 3,000 signatures to qualify the Ordinance for the ballot, and registered nearly 300 people to vote. We have hosted Fair Wage Cafes and the Big Box Bash, free events to build community and organize the people to improve everyone's lot in life. Many of you have generously donated your time, food, talents, and other resources, making those events collective and vibrant.

Now we are asking for your help to ensure that the Eureka Fair Wage Act passes in November. With the coming of the New Year, the campaign season begins in earnest. We will need your time and money.
It is amazing what we have accomplished operating on a shoestring budget. We filed, published, printed, popularized and gathered the signatures for the Eureka Fair Wage Act. Most of our funding came from everyday people putting a dollar or five in donation cans at our events, and we thank everyone who has kicked in. Now that we are a real “threat,” with the Eureka Fair Wage Act on the ballot, we anticipate Walmart and Target and other large employers to pour money into TV and print advertising, expensive propaganda to defeat the ballot initiative. We cannot hope to match their funding, but with your donations, our style of creative marketing, hard work, and the true experienced realities of poverty wages and disproportionate resources, working people will prevail.

With your help, we all will win in November and give our fellow Eureka workers a well deserved raise. Donate, Volunteer, and most importantly Vote “YES” on "The Minimum Wage Ordinance" on Tuesday, November 4th, 2014.

Book Fair time

Spent Saturday out in Manila at the 6th Anarchist Book Fair. Gave a talk on solitary confinement with a comrade and hung with some awesome people. here are a few pictures.

An Open Letter From Redwood Curtain Copwatch

This is a guest post from my good friends at Redwood Curtain Copwatch concerning the abysmal behavior of the EPD and the Harassment of our friend and fellow community member Shannon Hodgson.

From Redwood Curtain CopWatch. Redwood Curtain CopWatch can be reached at (707) 633-4493 or at copwatchrwc@riseup.net. Here is a link to the PDF of this letter: https://app.box.com/s/rx8wt8ojag05auenyxkf


November 29, 2013
RE: Harassment By Eureka Sergeant Rodrigo Reyna-Sanchez
Open Letter To Eureka Police Chief Mills,
It has come to our attention that on or about Wednesday, November 27, 2013- one day before
Thanksgiving- Mr. Shannon Hodgdson was unfairly targeted and told to “get out of town” by Eureka
Police Sergeant Rodrigo Reyna-Sanchez. Mr. Hodgdson was on the corner of V and 5th Streets in
Eureka, holding a sign (asking for help), which is constitutionally protected activity.1 Officer Sanchez
drove up in his patrol car and told Mr. Hodgdson that he better get off that corner and he'd better get out
of town. This is wholly inappropriate behavior. The intended and actual intimidation and the inherent
threat in Officer Sanchez' actions is not only unprofessional, inappropriate, and unethical, it is also
unlawful. Officer Sanchez violates a person's civil rights by seriously discouraging their exercise of
Constitutional rights. The blatant and serious discouragement of Mr. Hodgdson's exercise of his rights
by Officer Sanchez, or any officer, must cease. Mr. Hodgdson was not breaking any laws or blocking
any passage, nor was his first amendment expression triggering any lawful restrictions by the
government. As you must know, the government is prohibited from controlling or restricting the
content of a person's speech, except in very rare instances, and cannot impede a person's right to travel
or simply exist in a public space. This was not a rare instance wherein government may restrict a
person's expression, and Officer Sanchez has no authority to “order” or intimidate Mr. Hodgdson “out
of town.” While Mr. Hodgdson was behaving lawfully, Officer Sanchez was not.
Mr. Hodgdson observed another Eureka Officer in the vehicle, who did nothing to stop Officer Sanchez
from threatening Mr. Hodgdson and chilling the exercise of his rights. While we are disappointed that
another Eureka police officer would not fulfill his mandate to stop misconduct and/or civil rights
violations by another officer in his presence, we are not surprised. The Eureka Police Department
(EPD) has a history of covering up, and even encouraging, disregard for peoples' rights, abuse and
crimes against vulnerable people with little means to challenge them, routine civil rights violations,
cruelty, and gratuitous physical and verbal violence by its officers. Officer Sanchez is one of the
primary perpetrators of such depravity and violative behavior against the people of Eureka. If the other
officer, a complicit witness to Officer Sanchez' unlawful actions, had been you, we would hope that
you'd have intervened on behalf of Mr. Hodgdson's civil rights.
Unfortunately, threatening a person who is simply holding a non-commercial sign on public property is
a common practice of Officer Sanchez. We ask that you hold this officer accountable by, at a
minimum, commanding him to stop such abusive behavior.
We are seriously concerned for Mr. Hodgdson's safety, given the inherent threat made by Officer
Sanchez against him and Mr. Hodgdson's vulnerability as a houseless Eureka resident. Officer Sanchez
should be admonished from telling anyone that they must leave town, something that we know he has
also told other people. Evidently, Officer Sanchez believes that he has the authority to tell people that
they are “better off dead,” that “no one will miss you if I shoot you in the back of the head” (true
quotes), and that they cannot be on public property. This abusive conduct by Sanchez is often
witnessed and even emulated by the officers around him. Throughout our years of observing Officer
Sanchez and documenting hundreds of experiences by members of the public involving this officer, we
1 Mr. Hodgdson's activity is protected by the U.S. and California Constitutions. Please see September 21, 2012
Humboldt County Superior Court Ruling/Order regarding the unconstitutionality of Arcata's “aggressive panhandling”
ordinance. http://www.scribd.com/doc/107095113/Arcata-s-panhandling-ordinance
understand that he not only feels emboldened to intimidate and hurt people, but he seeks applause and
glorification for his bullying behavior. By any civilized standard of decency and community
protection, Officer Sanchez' attitude and record of abuse should be, at a minimum, grounds for his
removal from the EPD and for a ban on him owning or carrying weapons.
We do not want Mr. Hodgdson harmed or again threatened by Sanchez. This letter should serve as an
heads-up in the event that Mr. Hodgdson disappears, is arrested on dubious charges, or is found
seriously injured, we will have every reason to suspect Officer Sanchez (or someone acting on behalf
of him, EPD, or other local "law enforcement.") That being said, we much prefer that you (and each
entity to which this letter is going) protect Mr. Hodgdson and all similarly situated residents against any
further abuse, threats, and/or violence from Officer Sanchez and other EPD officers. Mr. Hodgdson
does not intend to leave town and should not be intimidated from exercising his basic constitutional
rights.
Please be sure that your officers know that retaliation for this letter (or any other complaint) is not only
illegal, but also unacceptable in your department.
Given that this county's poverty level is highest in the state, we hope that you begin your tenure as
Chief of Police making clear to your officers that harassing poor people is unacceptable on your watch.
Sincerely,
Redwood Curtain CopWatch
cc: Eureka City Council
Eureka City Attorney, Cyndy Day-Wilson
Eureka City Clerk, Pamela Powell
Civil Liberties Monitoring Project
Civil Liberties Defense Center
Peoples' Action for Rights and Community
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty
District Attorney, Paul Gallegos
Humboldt County Human Rights Commission
Editor, North Coast Journal
Editor, Times-Standard
Editor, Greenfuse Publication
Tracy Rain, Attorney at Law
Peter Martin, Attorney at Law

A Minimum Wage Update from the Fair Wage Folks

A Minimum Wage Update from the Fair Wage Folks
a committee to pass the “Minimum Wage Ordinance” in Eureka

Some good news to report from local communities around the nation organizing to raise wages.
The people in Washington D. C. are going toe to toe with corporate greed. After Walmart pressured the Mayor to veto a raise in the Minimum wage that the city council passed the community is not taking no for an answer. The people in the district are starting an initiative drive for a $12.50 minimum wage for big box retailers. While the folks are doing the mayors job and raising wages they might as well vote in a new mayor at the same time.
The people in SeaTac Washington just became national leaders by passing a $15 an hour minimum for workers at the airport and other nearby businesses. From sea to shining sea labor is standing up and saying it is time to pay a fair wage for hard work.
In California our governor signed a bill raising the minimum wage in the state to $10 an hour by 2016. The fair Wage Folks say TOO LOW AND TOO SLOW. We are already too far behind to wait for 2016 to still be working at poverty levels.
The Fair Wage Folks have been busy here in Eureka as well. Spreading the message of improving our community through grass roots organizing. We have been holding Fair Wage Cafes at the Labor Temple and most recently at Highland Park. With the help of a lot of volunteer musicians, chefs, speakers and our tireless dishwasher Don we are building ties between neighbors and neighborhoods. Our next cafe is January 11th noon to 5 at the Labor Temple. We will be kicking of the new year with good friends,good music, nutritious food and new ideas to strengthen our community.

Shorter days

I am out on the Square in Arcata, 5 pm for the 5 demands. The week has been hectic but thanks to the ladies of Hands On I am still mobile. There are some young travelers jamming on their guitars while a drunken pirate wench yells for her dollar. This Pirate looks at forty from the wrong side. The soup guys are here serving up a warmth that is more then the mere filling of bellies. The vibe is better than it has been in weeks. Men in Rabbit and Wolf costumes bum smokes and love breaks down in the corner of the square. I am sorry my comrade did not come along as good days come too few sometimes.

D. O. A. A.P. B. A. T. C. O. A.G.

Days of Action Against Police Brutality and the Criminalization of Youth for the acronym impaired like myself. October 22nd and 23rd every year we put on an action to stand in solidarity with thousands of groups around the nation and the world. October 22nd is the national Day of Action, we add the 23rd in remembrance of Chris Burgess a young man criminalized by the system at age 10 and murdered by the police just a few short years later on October 23rd. With the help of many dedicated volunteers we held an action lasting 36 hours, serving hundreds of meals, covering almost every neighborhood in Eureka at one point in time. We had a live concert in Carson park as we dined on wonderful vegan vittles by candle light under the grape arbor.