Join LA “listening session”: Working people must be heard!

LOS ANGELES – Working people must be heard! That message becomes clearer every day as people all across the country continue the struggle for fair wages, immigrant reform, less student debt, and union recognition.

The AFL-CIO, in advance of its September 8-12 convention in Los Angeles, has issued a call for “listening sessions,” a way for working people and their allies to come together and add their creative ideas and strategies for rebuilding the progressive movement. Some 200 of them have already taken place. (See aflcio2013.org for more information.)

A coalition of union members in Los Angeles has reached out to community groups and activists in social justice movements to join in on the discussion, on Monday night, August 26, from 7-10 pm, with Chloe Osmer, senior organizer for the AFL-CIO, moderating. The listening session will be held at the Workmen’s Circle, a more than century-old progressive Jewish organization, at 1525 S. Robertson Blvd. in West L.A.

Workmen’s Circle and the National Writers Union L.A. Chapter have signed on as co-sponsors, understanding the importance of strengthening and broadening the labor movement. Together with other movement activists around town, they are eager to help make real changes in the lives of American workers.  

The AFL-CIO has outlined three main areas of discussion:

1.  Changing the labor movement to speak for working people now and in the future through growth, innovation, and political action.

2.  Creating a voice for all in the global economy.

3.  Building genuine, durable community partnerships and effective grassroots power.

As other listening sessions have done, this one too will report back the ideas coming from the attendees. Unions such as CSEA and SAG/AFTRA, as well as the general public, have been invited to participate. 

No reservations are required, just a willingness to engage in the process of imagining a better country and a more integrated world at peace. For further information, please call 310-552-2007.

Photo: AFL-CIO 2013 Convention website.