Environmental Justice Training for BIPOC - Deadline for Signing Up Today
By SARAH RINGLER
Photo from thisishell.com
Paul Ortiz, former UCSC professor and activist known to many of us locally will be in town via zoom as part of a series of events entitled California Ocean & Climate Justice Mini Fellowship. Silvia Morales, Executive Director of the Resource Center for Nonviolence, and Gail McNulty, Senior Manager for Communications & Climate Action at Save Our Shores are inviting Black, Indigenous and People of Color who are interested in working on climate and justice issues to a series of workshops that hopes to “form an ongoing community of practice to establish how we cultivate and nurture the transformation needed in our region and California as part of a global transition to a just, sustainable shared future,” according to their Mission Statement.
Zoom workshops begin on April 17 and culminate on June 10 where participants will participate in a TED-style World Oceans Week. Workshop presenters include Ortiz, director of the award-winning Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, author of "An African American and Latinx History of the United States," and professor of history at the University of Florida; Dr. Michael Mendez, author of “Climate Change from the Streets: How Conflict and Collaboration Strengthen the Environmental Justice Movement;” Wilson Liénano, Managing Editor at The GroundTruth Project; and Irene Tsouprake, speaker coach and corporate event producer.
The deadline to register is April 9 at 5 pm.
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Labor Action in Higher Ed - Reel Work May Day Labor Film Festival April 7-13
Art By KATIE GREEN>
By SARAH RINGLER
From Canada to California, universities over the last 30 years have undermined working conditions by relying on contingent faculty and graduate students to carry the load of teaching while job security and fair wages decline. Three films followed by a zoom panel will discuss approaches to organizing change to create better working conditions for faculty and staff and better learning conditions for students.
Labor Action in Higher Ed - Watch films from Apr. 7-13.
IN SEARCH OF PROFESSOR PRECARIOUS
(Gerry Potter, 2020, 51 min, Canada)
A “precarious,” contingent faculty member in Canada quits his job to make a film, asking part-time and full-time non-tenure-track professors across Canada about their job insecurity and low pay. A group of professors strike, and another battles their own union to be included.
PRECARITY U
(Rebecca Singh & Laura DaSilva,2020, 13 min, Canada)
A dirty little secret at one of the world's top universities. Employees at the University of Toronto speak out about work and shines a light on things that need to change during the United Steelworkers Local 1998 Casual Unit bargaining campaign.
WILDCAT: UCSC TA COLA Strike
(Jordan Freeman, 2020, 8 min, Santa Cruz)
Graduate student TAs shoulder a major burden of the teaching load at UC Santa Cruz, but they can’t afford to live in the community. After their statewide union, UAW Local 2865, was unable to secure a satisfactory compensation package, UCSC grad students initiated a wildcat grading strike in December 2019, escalating to a full teaching strike in February. UCSC fired 54 students, which only fired up the protest and solidified the unity of grads, undergrads and faculty as the strike spread to other campuses.
Panelists include: Moderator: Jennifer Colby, CSUMB Lecturer, CFA California Faculty Association (CFA); Filmmakers: Gerry Potter, Red Heeler Media Inc., Edmonton, Canada; Jordan Freeman, UCSC grad student;
Higher Ed Workers: Veronica Hamilton, UCSC Grad Students Association, UAW 2865; Kathy Sheffield, CFA Director of Representation and Bargaining; Meghan O'Donnell, CFA Executive Board, CSU Monterey Bay; Deborah Gould, UCSC Assoc Professor of Sociology, UCSC Faculty Association; Roxi Power, UCSC Lecturer, University Council, AFT Local 2199.
Twenty years ago, Jeffrey Smedberg, Santa Cruz unionist and activist, and a few others in Santa Cruz County’s State Employees International Union, SEIU, decided to launch a film festival. They felt that people needed to be informed and reminded what unions do, had done and stood for. The festival is kept going by a group of dedicated volunteers.
The festival, from Apr. 1 to June 1, will be featured in two forms, 2021 Festival Selections and Classic Labor Films. 2021 Festival Selections will be shown for a week, from Thursday to Tuesday, and culminate with a Tuesday night online discussion with filmmakers and others at 7pm. See this week's films above.
Classic Labor Films for Friday, April 9, 2021, 6-8 pm on Community TV:
Triangle Fire
(PBS American Experience, 2011, 55 min)
The 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Greenwich Village in which 146 immigrant women workers perished prompted sweeping workplace safety laws. From Reel Work 2011.
Eyes On The Fries
(Casey Peek & Jeremy Blasi, 2004, 21 min)
Holding Out
(Rebecca Gourevitch, 2016, 20 min, San Francisco)
The tension between tenants, developers and City Hall in San Francisco's eviction crisis. From Reel Work 2017.
Sisters in the Brotherhood
(Dan Schultz and Sue Schultz, 2015, 18 min, USA)
A realistic view of what it's like to be a woman in the carpentry trade. From Reel Work 2016.
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Which Side Are You On?
By Florence Patton Reece, born April 12,1900
Come all you good workers
Good news to you, I'll tell
Of how the good old union
Has come in here to dwell
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
My daddy was a miner
And I'm a miner's son
And I'll stick with the union
Till every battle's won
They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J. H. Blair
Oh, workers can you stand it?
Oh, tell me how you can?
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?
Don't scab for the bosses
Don't listen to their lies
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize
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Photo by TARMO HANNULA
A western bluebird currently on patrol most afternoons in Arana Gulch.
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Santa Cruz County Covid-19 Report
By SARAH RINGLER
The Santa Cruz County Health Department regularly releases data on the current status of Covid-19 in the county. As of April 8, there were 15,283 cases that tested positive. That is essentially the same as last Thursday. There was a total of 202 deaths this week with a 1% increase. There were few changes in all of the categories.
Santa Cruz County moved into the Orange Tier on March 30. For information, go here.
The county's Effective Reproductive Number is staying below one. See chart below. Numbers above one show the spread of the virus is increasing. Below one means the spread is decreasing.
To get tested without a doctor’s request, call 1-888-634-1123 or go online at https://lhi.care/covidtesting. Other testing sites that may have restricted access can be found here.
For vaccine information in Santa Cruz County, click here.
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% deaths by ethnicity/% of population:
White - 56%/58%
Latinx - 36%/34%
Black - 0/1%
Asian - 7%/4%
American Native - 0/not available
% deaths by gender/% of population:
Female - 51%/50%
Male - 49%/50%
Other - 0
Under Investigation - 0
Deaths by age/202:
30-39 - 2%
40-49 - 3%
50-59 - 2%
60-69 - 13%
70-79 - 21%
80-89 - 31%
90+ - 27%
Tested positive by region/% of population:
Mid-county - 21%/12%
North county - 19%/60%
South county - 58%/29%
Under investigation - 0%
Weekly increases in positive tests:
June 12-19 - 7%
June 19-26 - 23%
June 26 to July 3 - 22%
July 3-9 - 23%
July 9-16 - 40%
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July 16-23 - 20%
July 23-30 - 27%
July 30-Aug. 6 - 13%
Aug. 6-13- 12%
Aug.14-20 - 16%
Aug.20-28 - 10%
Aug. 28-Sept. 3 - 10%
Sept. 3-10 - 6%
Sept. 10-17- 8%
Sept. 17-24 - 7%
Sept. 25- Oct.1 - 5%
Oct. 1 - 9 - 4%
Oct. 9-15 - 4%
Oct. 15-22 - 5%
Oct. 23-29 - 4%
Oct. 30-Nov. 5 - 6%
Nov. 5-12 - 10%
Nov. 12-19 - 11%
Nov. 19-26 - holiday
Nov. 19-Dec. 3 - 29% 2 weeks of data for this week only
Dec. 3-10 - 16%
Dec. 10-17 - 17%
Dec. 17-24 - 14%
Dec. 24-31 - 19%
Jan. 1-7 - 13%
Jan. 7-14 - 14%
Jan. 15-21 - 11%
Jan. 21-28 - 5%
Jan. 28-Feb. 4 - 5%
Feb. 5-11 - 2%
Feb. 11-18 - 2%
Feb. 18-25 - 1%
Feb. 25-March 5 - 1%
March 5-11 - 1%
March 11-18 - 2%
March 18-25 - .5%
March 25- Apr. 1 - .7%
Apr. 1-8 - 0.1%
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Labor History Calendar for April 9-15:
April 10, 1919: Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary, ambushed and killed.
April 10, 2019: Soldiers refuse to fire on protesters in Sudan; government falls.
April 11, 2005: Spectrum sweater factory collapses in Bangladesh killing 64.
April 11, 2019: 31,000 begin an 11 day strike against Stop & Shop in 3 US states costing bosses $345 million.
April 12,1900: Birth of Florence Patton Reece, active in the Harlan County coal strikes and author of the famous labor song, "Which Side Are You On?"
April 13, 2016: 36,000 Verizon workers strike against outsourcing.
April 14, 1930: Over 100 Filipino and Mexican farmworkers arrested for union activity. Eight convicted of criminal syndicalism in the Imperial Valley.
April 14, 1939: John Steinbeck published "Grapes of Wrath."
April 15, 1915: IWW union of Agricultural Workers formed in Kansas City, MO.
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Photo by TARMO HANNULA
Leek Matzoh Lasagna
By SARAH RINGLER
I’d seen them in the vegetable section of the grocery store for years. Someone must be buying them because why else would they still be there? I had no idea what they tasted like or how to prepare them. One evening, in a hostel in the city of Cork in Ireland, I watched a guy, out of the corner of my eye, cut up and fry a leek for dinner. That was it – one sautéed leek.
Well, that broke the barrier. Since then, I have run into a few leek recipes and have become very fond of them. They are members of the onion and garlic family but have a subtler flavor. Like onions, they soften when cooked.
The leek is thought to be a native of Central Asia. Dried remains have been found in archeological sites in Mesopotamia. Today, it is the national emblem of Wales where it relates to a legend where the Welsh King Cadwaladr of Gwynedd fought an ancient battle against the Saxons in a leek field. He directed his soldiers to identify themselves by wearing a leek on their helmets. Also, the name of Agatha Christie’s famous character, the French detective Poirot, comes from the French word for “leek.” In the past, leeks were much more popular and form the base of the French soup, vichyssoise, and the Welsh cock-a-leekie soup.
Leeks look like giant green onions. The white and pale green parts are what are usually eaten. The dark green top is commonly discarded because it is tough and tastes more like cabbage. To maximize the white part, farmers mound up dirt around the base of the leek. That is why they need to be washed very well.
Leek and Cheese Matzoh Pie
5 medium leeks
3 tablespoons unsalted butter or vegetable oil
1 chopped onion
1 cup (1/2 pound) ricotta cheese
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt or salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup fresh dill or 1 tablespoon dried dill
About 4 matzoh squares
1 1/3 cups grated Kashkaval or Gruyere cheese
Cut away the root ends of the leeks, most of the green part and discard. Cut them in half lengthwise. Then, cut the lengths crosswise into thin slices. Soak the leeks in a sink full of cold water. Swish them around to loosen any dirt. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain well in a colander. You need to have about 3 1/2 cups sliced leeks.
Warm the butter or oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the leeks and onions, and cook, stirring often, until they are both very tender – about 15 to 20 minutes. Make sure that there is no liquid left. Drain if necessary. When done, remove from the heat and cool. When cool, mix in ricotta, cheese, two of the eggs, salt, pepper, nutmeg and dill. Taste a little bit and adjust if necessary.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan.
Beat the remaining egg in a shallow pan large enough to hold one matzoh. Put come cold water in another pan that is also large enough to hold one matzoh square. Soak a matzoh in the water for about 3 minutes – enough time for it to soften but not to disintegrate. Drain the matzoh and then dip it in the beaten egg. Finally, put it in the greased baking pan. Fill the bottom of the pan with one solid layer of the prepared matzohs. Sprinkle that layer with 2/3 cup of the grated Gruyere or Kashkaval cheese. Next, add the leek and onion filling. With the rest of the matzoh, make the top layer. Sprinkle that with the rest of the cheese. Bake the pie until browned, about 30-40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit 10 minutes. Serve.
For a variation, you can add spinach instead of leeks. I usually also add a middle layer of matzoh. It fills an 8-inch square cake pan nicely. This easily feeds four people.
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YOUR STORY OR ART HERE: Please submit a story that you think would be of interest to the people of Santa Cruz County. Try and keep the word count to around 400. Also, there should be suggested actions if possible. Submit to coluyaki@gmail.com
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Welcome to Serf City Times. Over time, our county has grown more stratified and divided with many people feeling left out. Housing affordability, racism and low wages are the most obvious factors. However, many groups and individuals in Santa Cruz County work tirelessly to make our county a better place for everyone. These people work on the environment, housing, economic justice, health, criminal justice, disability rights, immigrant rights, racial justice, transportation, workers’ rights, education reform, gender issues, equity issues, electoral politics and more. Often, one group doesn’t know what another is doing. The Serf City Times is dedicated to serving as a clearinghouse for those issues by letting you know what is going on, what actions you can take and how you can support these groups.This is a self-funded enterprise and all work is volunteer.
Copyright © 2021 Sarah Ringler - All rights reserved
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