Anti-Discrimination Working Group UpdatesOur Anti-Discrimination Working Group continues to take action on a number of fronts — for more information about any of the below, or to get involved, please email anti-discrimination@uaw4121.org! This Saturday! 4121 out for UW BLM Daily ActionAs shared previously, Every day in August from 4-7pm, UW Black Lives Matter is holding space at the George Washington statue on Seattle campus for an ongoing art installation. Our Anti-Discrimination Working Group is organizing a contingent of UAW 4121 members to participate this Saturday 8/15 at 5pm — please make it if you can! No artistic background needed to participate. If you can’t make it, please consider donating a few dollars to sustain the purchase of art supplies and equipment for BLM (gofundme: https://www.gofundme.com/f/uwblm or venmo: @UWBLM). UW Community Response to Cliff MassTake a minute to sign onto the letter demanding accountability from Cliff Mass and the UW Atmospheric Science department. As a faculty member in the atmo-sci department, Cliff has a long history of discrimination, harassment, and intimidation. Last week, he authored a post on his public blog equating this summer’s wave of protests for Black lives to the Kristallnacht of Nazi Germany. Thursday’s post is only the latest in a long pattern of discriminatory, belittling, and bullying behavior. For years, graduate students and Postdocs have been calling for a meaningful response to Mass’s behavior from the College of Environment and UW administration to no avail. Enough is enough. If the UW administration does not take decisive action to address this pattern of behavior, it contributes to a climate where these racist narratives are tolerated and demonstrates UW’s lack of commitment to real change. Please join more than 250 UW students, postdocs, staff, faculty, and alumni in demanding that Mass be fired and other structural accountability measures be implemented immediately. Movement to Defund SPDOn Monday, we sent this letter to Seattle City Council calling for them to take immediate measures to prioritize true community safety and wellbeing — work that demands but also goes beyond defunding bloated police budgets. Here in Seattle, this includes (but is not limited to) reducing police presence in schools; renegotiating the police contract to fully realize the 2017 Accountability Ordinance; investing in affordable housing for Black and Brown communities; supporting Black economic development in historically BIPOC neighborhoods; maximizing public land to serve Black-led community organizations; increasing community-led research on equity issues; funding other critical social services for healthcare, jobs, and education; and decreasing the number of police on the force. City Council subsequently passed some measures to reduce the Seattle Police Department budget — including eliminating the Navigation Team and capping the salaries of SPD’s top executives. While these measures are a start, there is still much more to be done towards realizing real public safety and wellbeing — the fight continues! Rapid mobilization networkMembers of the ADWG have established a network of fellow UAW 4121 members for rapid mobilization to protests and other events in the Seattle/Bothell/Tacoma area, as a way to quickly coordinate about upcoming events we want to attend, and to connect with others on the ground at events to help build safer and more accessible participation. All UAW 4121 members are encouraged to join — please fill out this form and an organizer will follow up with you! Postdoc Family Friendly Working GroupThe Postdoc Family Friendly Work Group is meeting on Tuesday August 11th at 10:00am. Please email familyfriendly@uaw4121.org if you would like to join and get involved! In Solidarity, Douglas Avella-Castro |
