On November 10, hundreds of people demonstrated and bargined for better wages and working conditions for AFSCME members at the nine University of California campuses and five medical centers. AFSCME stands for American, Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees. Local 3299 AFSCME members are employed by the UC to serve food; clean bathrooms, dorms, labs, offices, and hospitals; drive shuttle buses, and park cars. The rally effectively demonstrated that AFSCME workers, UC students and members of the Santa Cruz community, including 3rd District County Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt and newly elected Santa Cruz City Council member Tony Madrigal, are committed to improving the working conditions for service workers in the UC system.

On Wednesday November 10th, the Members of Local 3299 AFSCME will be having a major rally when UC representatives come to the campus for state-wide bargaining. The rally will take place at 12:00 noon in front of the Baytree Bookstore on the UCSC campus.

Money for Warfare

It's Halloween evening, and Miami Beach is bustling with twenty-something party-goers and parents shepherding their costumed children through pastures of candy. The Democratic Party office on Lincoln Road, a glitzy pedestrian mall traversing the island, has its doors flung wide open, rainbow-colored Kerry/Edwards propaganda spilling out onto the sidewalk.

Downtown Miami, by contrast, was dead silent by the time I left the ACT office on Biscayne Blvd at dusk. Vacant lots, empty homes and office buildings, and new construction sites make for a dismal landscape of urban decay and impending gentrification. Developers are trying to extend the flashy atmosphere of Miami Beach to downtown, catering to upscale young professionals that might possibly want to live where they work. But for now, most everyone who can afford to lives away from downtown, and far from Overtown, the adjoining historically Black neighborhood.

At about 6:30 PM on Friday October 29, Ray, Joelle and Shane were walking down Soquel Ave. in Santa Cruz. Our conversation focused on the upcoming elections, discrimination towards youth, and what we want to change in our society.
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