DOZENS OF CUNY FACULTY IN PROTEST
HEAD TO JAIL v. SCHOOL
with
Barbara Bowen, President, Professional Staff Congress/CUNY
and protesting workersing New Yorkers, for the immigrants and people of color of this city.

         “CUNY Needs A Raise,”  “Stop the War on CUNY,” 
             “No More Excuses Chancellor Milliken"

Several dozen City University of New York faculty members were arrested in the latest of a series of escalating protests as part of a demand for salary increases. CUNY’s roughly 25,000 faculty and professional staff members have been without a contract since 2010 and have had no salary increases in that time.  Just before the civil disobedience occurred and after an announcement of a strike authorization vote the CUNY Administration finally put an offer on the table, but the Professional Staff Congress, which represents the workers vows to keep the pressure on as the proposal falls far short of what is needed to pay staff decently for the important work they do. Chancellor Milliken's offer represents a failure on CUNY management's part to secure sufficient investment by New York's Gov. Cuomo in the people who make college education possible
for half a million working New Yorkers, for the immigrants and people of color of NYC..

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http://archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesMayDayInNewYorkCityPart2/MayDayNyntl2.mp3 
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Building Bridges Occupies Air Waves

with a May Day Special!
May Day in New York City Part 2
With
Lucas Sanchez, Organizer, N.Y. Communities for Change, grocery workers organizing campaign
John Samuelsen, President, Transport Workers Union Local 100
Barbara Bowen, Pres., Professional Staff Congress,
City University of New York
Mario Rodriquez, Organizing Dir.,District Council 37, AFSCME and Occupy Wall Street activist


May Day began in the U.S. in 1886 as a nationwide general strike, led by immigrant workers, fighting for the 8 hour work day. While celebrated across the globe, it has been largely ignored in the U.S., until recently, when immigrant workers revived it.


Now, a new chapter in the history of May Day was written with the involvement of Occupy Wall Street, the organization making history with its public encampments and protests against the global financial community. And, Building Bridges presente! We were there for this new chapter in the
movement, reporting from May Day events throughout the day.


We spiced those events with commentary and analysis on the struggles of the working class in the midst of capitalist crisis and prospects for change, from leading champions of the working class, who build organization and class consciousness.

Occupy with Building Bridges as we acknowledge the blood, sweat and tears of workers, the workers who really create all the wealth and want it back. So, lock arms, unite and fight for the working class, for the 99%.

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NYC Students Stand Firm After CUNY Police Bully Them During Occupy
City Univeristy of NY (CUNY) Protest Over Tuition Hikes
With
Occupy CUNY Student Members Hector Agredano & Emma Francis-Snyder Barbara Bowen, President of CUNY Professional Staff Congress

Students, faculty, Occupy CUNY and OWS demonstrated outside
Baruch College to protest the Board of Trustees' meeting, where the
Board passed measures to further squeeze the public out of CUNY.
Even though these meetings are legally obligated to be open to the
public, Baruch's president announced that the Vertical Campus would
be closed to almost everyone by 3pm. However, protestors reclaimed
CUNY on the outside, and exposed the Board's illegitimate actions inside.
Police violence has already occurred at Baruch, in response to protests
about tuition hikes, and unfair labor practices targeted toward adjunct
and other faculty, and the privatization of the public CUNY system. But,
like pro-democracy movements from UC-Davis to Occupy Wall Street
the protestors stood firm - our schools and communities are not for sale,
and we will not give up our rights to free speech and assembly.
FREE CUNY!

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From Egypt to Wisconsin, Is NY Next?: Breaking the Silence, NYC’s Protests Against Budget Cuts Buoyed by the new spirit of rebellion flowing from Egypt to Wisconsin, thousands of students, workers & community members from a wide coalition of organizations rallied at City Hall Park, followed by a march on Wall Street to demand higher taxes on the rich, to prevent budget cutbacks. This was the first major NYC demonstration, in an otherwise muted budget debate despite the grim consequences of the State & City proposed cuts. **** Arrests Up The Ante On Albany Budget Negotiations with Barbara Bowen, President, Professional Staff Congress, CUNY and James Parrott, Deputy Director & Chief Economist, Fiscal Policy Inst. While Albany budget negotiators are reaching agreement, the real question for the public is how much pain and suffering are legislators prepared to hit us with. We’ll analyze the budget and especially, it’s likely impact on NYC, where Mayor Bloomberg,while sitting on a $3 billion budget surplus is threatening major cutbacks, & thousands of layoffs. Bloomberg, like the Governor refuses to consider a millionaires or a securities transfer tax to prevent a slash and burn policy. In otherwise subdued budget protests this year, the Professional Staff Congress of CUNY led an Albany protest in which 33 people were arrested. They sat down and blocked access to the New York State Capitol's Executive Chamber demanding that Albany not pass an austerity budget that pays for a hefty tax breaks for the wealthy. stream or download

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