During the week of July 8 there will be many events protesting the immigration concentration camps. See details on the flyer. Hope you can join one or more!
Homeless Advocacy Workgroup
We assisted Job’s Shelters of the Sierra (JSS) in outreach through asking our members to contact the board of supervisors regarding the disposition of the now-empty Placerville juvenile hall. The idea put forth by JSS was to turn the empty facility over to the Nomadic Shelter for use as a homeless shelter and a mental health facility. The fate of the facility will be decided at a later date.
An announcement from JSS:
A very big development: The Placerville City Police will begin working with the County Sheriff’s Department and their HOT (homeless outreach team) Team. Within the City of Placerville, the sheriff’s deputies will have a Placerville officer riding with them while they interact with the homeless. Their focus will be on the mentally changed and addicts who are destructive. Also they will assist the homeless population who are not destructive and need help. This is a great change and a sensible step in helping our local population without housing.
Healthcare Workgroup
The Healthcare Workgroup continues to promote ‘Healthcare For All’ through outreach and house parties. On, May 20th, we were the featured presenters at Public Health’s ‘Access To Care’ monthly meeting where we showed the movie and answered the group’s questions about our work.
We are grateful to Public Health for their ongoing support and their recent sponsorship in printing 3,000 of the Sexual Health Resource wallet cards in English and 1,500 in Spanish. What is even more gratifying is that they kept half of them to distribute themselves!
The Workgroup will meet in July for updates on legislative activity and to strategize for future activities. Date and location to be announced.
Immigration Rights Workgroup
The immigration rights workgroup worked with St. Patrick’s Church and the IRC (International Rescue Committee) to help five people apply for citizenship. The IRC also worked with several other individuals who needed help with immigration issues. We are grateful for the work that the IRC does for the immigrant community.Every Monday and Wednesday we have a language exchange group, the number attending changes, but it’s a good way for us to get to know each other.
The immigration rights group is also tutoring school-age students. I hope more are willing to volunteer, since summer is a great time for students to catch up
or advance.
Please call to help us out! We need volunteers to assist with citizenship test prep classes. (Did you know that to become a citizen, an applicant must answer 100 questions in English?) We also need basic American history and government books. They should be either in Spanish or in simple English for a person whose second language is English.
Come join us! It’s very rewarding. Send a text to Becky Guinn, 530-903-0402.
Worker Solidarity Network Workgroup
On May 19th our workgroup put on the General Meeting for the El Dorado Progressives. The meeting was focused on labor issues.
There were some very inspiring speakers! Ruth Ibarra, president of the Sacramento Chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women and John Reimann, labor activist and editor of Oakland Socialist. EDP members from the Worker Solidarity Network spoke also and shared their stories on why unions were so important to them.
A big focus of the meeting was the ongoing struggle of farm workers in San Quintin, Baja California, Mexico, who grow strawberries for Driscoll's and the ongoing boycott of Driscoll Berries. People attending the meeting were provided with letters about the Driscoll boycott they could send to the major grocery corporations asking them to honor the boycott and remove Driscoll berries from their shelves.
The meeting was thought provoking and well taken; attendees stayed long after the meeting engaged in conversation.
Two days after the meeting, members of the Worker Solidarity Network teamed with other members of El Dorado Progressives to organize and attend an urgent protest at the downtown courthouse about the continuing rightwing attack on the right of women to control their own bodies.
Protesters stood in the rain making their voices heard loud and clear! While we received negative comments from a few, overall the citizens of Placerville were very supportive of the protest, especially young people and older women. We received many honks of support and thumbs up from people driving by.
It was a very active few days for our Worker Solidarity Network group.