Ignacio Meneses

Ignacio Meneses

Template:TOCnestleft Ignacio Meneses is a Detroit, Michigan activist.

Memorial to Coleman Young

On December 20 1997 the Communist Party USA's Peoples Weekly World published on page 18, a memorial to late Detroit mayor Coleman Young.

Signatories to the memorial included Ignacio Meneses.

National Network On Cuba

In 2001 National Network On Cuba co-chairs were Tatia Ash, Patsy Behrend, Ignacio Meneses, Marilyn McKenna, Jan Strout.

Fifth Cuba/Venezuela/Mexico/North America Labor Conference

The Fifth Cuba/Venezuela/Mexico/North America Labor Conference, with representation from eight countries and virtually every region of the U.S., took place the weekend of Dec. 5-7, 2008. in Tijuana, Mexico.

Sponsors of the conference included the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange; Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas; World Organization for the Right of the People to Healthcare—Service Employees International Union 1199 NY; International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five; National Network on Cuba; Venezuela Solidarity Network; International Action Center; Cuba Solidarity New York; Southwest Workers Union; and Converjencia de los Movimientos de los Pueblos de las Americas; among others.

The Dec. 6-7 sessions were chaired by conference organizers Cheryl LaBash and Ignacio Meneses, and by SEIU Local 1199 leader Rhadames Rivera.

Speaking at the People's Summit

From June 14-17 2009, the Moratorium NOW!-initiated People's Summit was held at Grand Circus Park, Detroit, MI. A "tent city" was built at the location, and protesters camped there for four days of "Active Resistance, Political Discussion and Strategizing for a “People's Stimulus Plans” and an “Economic Bill of Rights” for Working People and the Poor." Moratorium NOW! is a Workers World Party-front organization. Speaking at the summit were Jesse Jackson; JoAnn Watson; Abayomi Azikiwe, Workers World Party; Mike Martinez, FIST, Workers World Party; Baldemar Velasquez, FLOC; Ignacio Meneses, U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange; and Rosendo Delgado, Latinos Unidos.

Second Nuestra Americas labor conference

Ignacio Meneses represented the US/Cuba Labor Exchange at the Second Nuestra Americas labor conference held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sept. 22-24, 2009. Since 1991 the Labor Exchange has built international ties between working people in the U.S. and workers throughout Latin America, particularly in Cuba.

Workers World Party

Two main themes ran through the 2009 Workers World Party National Conference: the revival of serious class struggle in the United States as the capitalist crisis brutally strips the workers and oppressed of their jobs, homes and health, and the need to strengthen international workers’ solidarity in the face of corporate globalization and increasing militarism and war.

Ignacio Meneses of the US/Cuba Labor Exchange called WWP “a point of reference for the struggle in the U.S.”

Latin American Labor Leaders tour

The Latin American Labor Leaders tour kicked off March 21, 2010, in Cleveland demanding an end to the U.S. blockade of Cuba and its trade and travel ban that prevents workers from exchanging views and direct understanding.

The participation of Gilda Chacón Bravo from the Confederation of Cuban Workers (Central de Trabajadores de Cuba) and the World Federation of Trade Unions was stalled by the U.S. State Department. Although approved for a visa, "her passport is currently held by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, making it impossible for her to travel and take part in the tour".

A wide cross section of Cleveland unions and the community warmly engaged Ronald Quesada, a national directorate member of the National Union of Social Security Fund Employees in Costa Rica . Quesada was one of many union leaders who applied to the U.S. State Department for a visa to join the tour, but the only one to date who has been approved.

Protest letters to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were signed by participants. Martha Grevatt, chair of the Civil and Human Rights Committee of UAW Local 122 and Peoples Fightback Center organizer, chaired the meeting and declared that workers’ solidarity could not be stopped and neither would this tour.

Quesada discussed labor conditions in Costa Rican shipyards, health care and mining; immigration, the imperialist-sponsored free trade agreements and the development of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA). Quesada’s union is a member of ALBA, although Costa Rica is not.

Ignacio Meneses from the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange spoke and translated. Greetings were given by meeting organizers including Deb Kline, Cleveland Jobs with Justice organizer; Brian Stefan-Szittai, director of the Inter Religious Task Force on Central America; Harold Wilson, president of the Cuyahoga-Medina Community Action Program Council of the United Auto Workers; and Tito Boneta, president of UAW Local 1005.

Also present were members of the Amalgamated Transit Union, the Teamsters, the Steelworkers, AFSCME, North Shore Labor Federation Retirees and a representative from the office of Congressperson Dennis Kucinich. Mar 28, 2010

Nicaragua visit

On Aug. 25, 2011 while attending ESNA IV (Encuentro Sindical Nuestra América Union Meeting of Our America) in Managua, Nicaragua, Martha Grevatt and Ignacio Meneses of the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange interviewed Humberto Montes de Oca, secretary of external affairs of the Mexican Union of Electrical Workers/Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas, which for several years has been fighting privatization and the loss of their jobs.

Endorsed SB 1306

As at Feb. 10, 2011, Ignacio Meneses had endorsed State Senator Hansen Clarke's Senate Bill 1306, "which would stop all mortgage foreclosures and evictions for two years." The bill is being supported by the Workers World Party-front, Moratorium NOW!.

Committee to Celebrate the Life of Luis Miranda Rivas

In 2009 Ignacio Meneses, UAW Local 174 was a member of the Committee to Celebrate the Life of Luis Miranda Rivas.

References

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