Greetings!

We are in the middle of a crisis that is already having a huge impact on people's livelihoods. But during these bleak times, we're seeing something beautiful: communities coming together to support some of the population's most vulnerable people. Here's how you can take part, whether you want to volunteer or are in need of help.

-Kina Thorpe, Educational Program Manager
In This Issue
  • PJC Update
  • Inequality Towards Food Service and Grocery Staff During the COVID-19 Pandemic
  • Healthcare Fund
  • Action Highlight: Four Letters and Petitions to Support the Most Vulnerable from COVID-19
Click here to for the quarterly Peace & Justice Center Newsletter
March 26, 2020
Image by Monica Trinidad
Dear friends, 

Things are changing so rapidly it is hard to keep up. Just two weeks ago we thought we might still host the Peace & Justice Center’s Annual Award Celebration! That seems far removed now. While the pandemic has changed the work we are doing, the mission remains relevant. We are writing with some updates and a request. 

First off, the search for a new Executive Director has been put on hold. I want to see this organization through this storm. It would feel terrible to leave the staff I work with at this time. 

Second, the federal government is working on a bill that is expected to give $1,200 directly to each person or $3,000 per family of four. For some people this money will be helpful in providing for themselves and their families, but nowhere near enough to sustain them long-term. For others with class privilege who are financially secure, this money won’t be as meaningful. I want to ask those of you with class privilege to pledge the money coming directly to you through the federal government, as part of the stimulus bill, to worthy causes.  

Can you pledge to give all or some of that money away?  If you have wealth/class privilege, please consider all the small nonprofits that are struggling to keep people employed. We hope that you will consider the Peace & Justice Center as one of these important causes. We want to remain viable when the chaos of this pandemic passes. And it will pass.

Lastly, here is an update on our efforts and status. We continue to work hard, from our homes, and our work remains relevant. Here is some of what we are doing:  

  • We compile and share information and actionable items through our e-news and on Facebook (please follow us if you are not already @pjcvermont).  
  • Community Voices for Immigrant Rights is working as hard as ever and we continue to play a significant role in that work. The next meeting is March 30, 6pm. Click here to register and join the call.
  • We keep a page that lists Mutual Aid networks for communities throughout the state, These systems create opportunities for people to request rsupport and others with resources or time to give to support them. Please check it out here and consider getting involved. If you know of other mutual aid efforts, please contact program@pjcvt.org and we'll add them to the page.
  • We shifted some of our programming to online platforms starting with Fair Trade 101: Racism and Global Trade. Tune in on Saturday to be part of that. 

So far, I have taken a 50% pay cut and the other four staff members are receiving full compensation. We hope to be able to keep this up. It costs us about $20,000 a month to keep up with payroll, rent, and basic monthly costs. We currently have enough money to stay operational until mid-May. All  donations at this time will help us stay afloat  beyond then. 

Thanks for anything you can do:
  1. offer mutual aid in your community,
  2. pass your government allocation to someone or something that will benefit from it more than you, and/or
  3. stay home and keep the community safe. 

I hope you can find some joy in these hard times. Let’s all hope and work for massive system change coming out the other end of this including universal health care, paid sick leave, minimum wage increases, and more. 

Peace, 
Rachel 
-Hannah Stump, PJC Intern

Everyone in the United States has been impacted in one way or another by the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. Small and large companies alike are working remotely. Densely populated cities such as San Francisco have ordered residents to “shelter-in-place”. We are all adapting to a new normal as social distancing has become imperative in slowing the spread of the virus. 

As more and more restrictions are put into place, the impact is devastating on the 15+ million Americans working in the restaurant industry and the 2+ million working in grocery stores. Many of our servers, bartenders, baristas, line cooks, dishwashers, and kitchen managers have been laid off or had their hours reduced dramatically as bars and restaurants have closed or shifted to take out/delivery only. Meanwhile, our cashiers, grocery stockers, deli service workers and product distributors/receivers are on the frontline, providing an essential service to their communities while also being most vulnerable to the virus. Additionally, not all service sector employees receive paid time off and healthcare, which makes staying healthy during a pandemic an especially daunting task.
This is typically where our community calendar would be. Because of many events being canceled due to COVID-19 we will not be showing the calendar this issue. If you have events happening virtually that you would like us to include in future editions please send them to info@pjcvt.org. We will not be showing any in-person events.
PJC
Programs & Events

Fair Trade 101: Global Trade & Racism Saturday March 28, 2-3:30pm. ONLINE. This presentation touches on the history of global trade and how it has historically come at the expense of marginalizing native nations. The Fair Trade Movement came about as an alternative trading system to ensure that producers in the Global South are given access to the global market, but also provided with basic human rights. Click here to join the event! FREE.

Community Voices for Immigrant Rights , Monday, March 30, 6-7:30pm. ONLINE. Join us as we organize and work to amplify local organizing efforts in support of immigrant rights. Click here to register and join the call. FREE

For more info on these events visit our website or contact  program@pjcvt.org
PJC Healthcare Fund
The PJC board is very concerned that four of our staff members have either woefully inadequate or no health insurance coverage. The present COVID-19 crisis has only sharpened this concern and called on us to act. We want to provide health insurance, but we do not have the funds to do that. For the present, we hope to create a resource pool the staff can draw on to address 
immediate and pressing health needs. If you are able to contribute a few dollars towards this please do. You can donate online here.

"Help keep us healthy as we work from home!" PJC staff and pets, from top left, Willow, Leo, Kina , Gavin, Rachel, Aris, Sookie, Klaus, and Amy.
Want to see more of the PJC more often?

Follow us to see pictures, read articles, and be in the know about what we're up to, community issues, events, and more.
Israeli Soldiers: Shooting “Ducks” in Gaza
- Excerpts from an article by Jonathan Ofir in Mondoweiss . Submitted by Mark Hage , VTJP
On Friday [March 8], a piece came out in [the Israeli newspaper] Haaretz by Hilo Glazer, featuring stories from five anonymous snipers who told how they gunned down unarmed protesters at the March of Return near the Gaza perimeter fence.

These are not shamed confessions: the snipers appear to be boasting about their “hits," in competition over the number of knees they can claim to have shot to pieces. And Israeli officials often say that their army is the “most moral army in the world.”

Let’s start with the knees. 
Knees are a hard thing to rack up.

“I kept the casing of every round I fired,” says one of them. “I have them in my room. So I don’t have to make an estimate – I know: 52 definite hits.”

Where do you stand in comparison to others who served in your battalion?

“From the point of view of hits, I have the most. In my battalion they would say: ‘Look, here comes the killer.’ When I came back from the field, they would ask, ‘Well, how many today?’ You have to understand that before we showed up, knees were the hardest thing to rack up. There was a story about one sniper who had 11 knees all told, and people thought no one could outdo him. And then I brought in seven-eight knees in one day. Within a few hours, I almost broke his record.”
Center Hours 
(reached via email or phone)
Monday-Friday: 10am-6pm
  
Store Hours
CLOSED
 
Location
60 Lake Street, Suite 1C
Burlington's Waterfront.
(Next to Skinny Pancake)  
Action Alerts: Sign These Four Letters and Petitions to Support the Most Vulnerable from COVID-19
Take Acton to combat both COVID-19 and the looming income crisis for working people
So far steps have been taken to address COVID-19 and the looming income crisis for working people, but there is still so much more to be done to assure that working people can survive this.

We may be heading towards a new Great Depression. Therefore we must continue to FIGHT to make sure that working people remain THE priority. We need the State of Vermont to immediately take new measures to respond to the evolving crisis. And in the intermediate and long term, legislation should be adopted to better guarantee the social and economic well-being of all working Vermonters.

The Vermont AFL-CIO has penned a letter to Governor Scott, Speaker of the House Mitzi Johnson, President pro tempore of the Vermont Senate Tim Ashe to implore them to continue to work for the people. Sign the letter and voice your needs!
Call on the State of Vermont to Postpone Evictions, Cancel Rent, & More During Coronavirus
Image from Seattle Rent Freeze
With a lot of misinformation out there about COVID-19, there is one piece of advice that most people agree is essential: stay home to stop the spread of the disease. But with thousands of Vermonters losing their jobs during this pandemic, or having to quit their jobs to take care of their children while schools/day cares are closed, keeping a roof over their head to stay under has become a greater challenge than it was before.

The Burlington Tenants Union has started a petition to urge the Governor to postpone evictions, cancel rent, and take other important steps to assure that poor and working class Vermonters don't lose their homes as a result of this pandemic, and to assure that those without homes in our community receive adequate shelter. 6,500 other Vermonters have already signed the petition. Add your name and let the governor know that action is needed NOW.
Expand Medicaid for All & Keep Rural Hospitals Open!
Image from pewtrusts.org 
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented public emergency.
Thousands of people in Vermont require immediate attention to meet the basic needs of our families, while  our rural hospitals and clinics are at risk of closure .

A high-quality, public health care system is the necessary response to this crisis. Join the Vermont Workers Center in calling on Governor Scott and the Vermont legislature to immediately:

  1. Expand Medicaid eligibility to all Vermont residents while moving to implement universal, public financing as laid out in Act 48.
  2. Establish public authority to direct Vermont’s hospitals and clinics, ensuring they stay open through the crisis and beyond by diverting resources from overpaid executives to front line providers and the health of our communities.
Release Immigrants Detained in Strafford County, NH
As responses to the COVID-19 virus drastically change the course of daily living worldwide, Immigration and Customs Enforcement must also do their part to hamper the continued spread of this deadly virus. With the rapid spread of COVID-19 throughout the nation, we are writing to urge ICE to halt all further immigration enforcement operations and in-person court appearances for bond and master calendar hearings, suspend the detention of new individuals, immediately release those individuals in ICE custody at the Strafford County Department of Corrections in New Hampshire, and to prepare a plan for safely reintegrating those individuals into the community. 

During a global health pandemic the government should spend it's resources keeping people healthy, housed, and fed. Not detaining immigrants.

This formal demand letter  was written by members of the Maine Law Refugee and Human Rights Clinic, Community Voices for Immigrant Rights, and the ACLU of New Hampshire. Please add your name to show your support of this demand to release detainees in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
Peace & Justice Center | 802-863-2345 |  info@pjcvt.org  |  http://www.pjcvt.org
60 Lake St, Ste 1C
Burlington, VT 05401