Success Story

Four former Guantánamo prisoners now relocated to Bermuda

Since the opening of the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a well-orchestrated propaganda campaign has stoked our fears of those held in the prison, who have been routinely referred to as the "Worst of the worst." After President Obama announced a plan to transfer Guantanmo prisoners to a prison within the U.S., the fear-mongering kicked into high gear and Congress capitulated, blocking funds for the transfer, based on the irrational belief that no prison could be secure enough to protect us from Guantánamo's super-terrorists.

But some towns are now shaking off the fear and fighting back against the fear-mongers with an unusual tactic: Town-hall resolutions that invite the Federal government to relocate a released Guantánamo detainee in their town.

The Homeless Veterans Initiative sponsored by Milwaukee Veterans for Peace Chapter 102, a WNPJ member group, continues to grow. Partnering with St. John's Lutheran Church at 5500 W. Greenfield Ave, the homeless program has opened the first veteran food pantry in Milwaukee. The doors will open every Tuesday morning to the 100+ veterans that Veterans for Peace has been delivering food to every week.

Student activists at UW-Madison are celebrating a victory after playing key role in winning restitution for 1200 Honduran workers who had been employed manufacturing Nike merchandise and then were fired without being paid millions in back wages. In April, after a months-long campaign by the Student-Labor Action Coalition, the UW became the first university in the U.S. to cancel its apparel contract with Nike over the issue of back pay for the fired workers. Cornell University then threatened to cancel its Nike contract as well and officials at other universities warned Nike that it would face larger student protests once the fall semester began, ultimately forcing Nike to agree to pay back wages to the Honduran workers.

In a stunning advance, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has reached a far-reaching agreement with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange that will improve pay and working conditions in 90 percent of Florida’s tomato industry. The victory is the result of a years-long strategy of targeting well-known brands that purchase tomatoes from FTGE growers, including Taco Bell, McDonalds and Whole Foods. The CIW’s combination of worker-led organizing in the fields and publicity about farmworkers’ conditions among the general public resulted in a series of agreements from food companies to pay an extra penny a pound for tomatoes, a 60 percent raise for tomato workers. In Wisconsin, Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice and Student Labor Action Coalition worked to educate the public about the CIW campaign. Read more about the Immokalee Workers victory here...