Michael Letwin

Michael Letwin Former President, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW 2325

Open Letter from RWU to the President

In November 2022 Michael Letwin signed the Open Letter from RWU to the President .

Pro-Hamas Letter

In the wake of a terror attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, Harvard University students signed an open letter blaming Israel. After the students received negative media coverage, the ANSWER Coalition jumped to their defense in an open letter titled: "Open letter against intimidation at Harvard: Defend the freedom to speak in support of Palestine!" Michael Letwin signed the letter. Excerpt:

We stand together against the racist harassment and demonization of Pro-Palestine student activists at Harvard and elsewhere across the country. These attacks are designed to intimidate, weaken, and silence people's right to speak out in support of the Palestinian people's struggle against occupation and apartheid. Their educational and professional futures are being threatened and right wing political operatives have even rented a TV truck to drive around campus displaying the students' faces. Some are even receiving death threats..."

Left Forum 2016

Labor 4 Palestine

• Michael Letwin, Chair Former President, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (NYC)
• Suzanne Adely Global Workers Solidarity Network; Global Organizing Institute, UAW (NYC)
• Clarence Thomas Million Worker March; ILWU Local 10, retired, Oakland CA
• Jaime Veve Transport Workers Union Local 100, retired

"NO WAR, NO WAY"

Jan 19, 2003, ANSWER brought together an impressive array of speakers at two rallies—one that began at 11 a.m. in the sprawling National Mall, and a concluding rally at the Washington Shipyard.

Moonanum James, co-chair of United American Indians of New England and a Vietnam-era veteran, opened the rally by connecting the U.S. government’s ongoing racist war against Native peoples with their preparations for a racist war against Iraq.

Anti-war speakers included Charley Richardson and Nancy Lessen from Military Families Speak Out and Liz McAlister, partner and widow of the late peace activist Philip Berrigan. “No blood for oil!” demanded disabled Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic, author of “Born on the Fourth of July.”

Speaking out for labor against the war: Brenda Stokely, president of AFSCME 1707 and Local 215 as well as a co-convener of New York City Labor Against the War; Fred Mason, president of statewide Maryland and D.C. AFL-CIO; Michael Letwin from U.S. Labor Against War and Dr. Nadia Marsh from Doctors and Nurses Against the War.

ANSWER speakers included Youth and Student Coordinator Peta Lindsay, Elias Rashmawi from the Free Palestine Alliance. Jennifer Wager from IFCO/Pastors for Peace, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard from PCJ and Larry Holmes and Brian Becker, both from the International Action Center.

Speakers representing other anti-war coalitions included Bill Fletcher, Jr., co-chair of United for Peace and Justice; Damu Smith from Black Voices for Peace; Medea Benjamin from Global Exchange, and Miles Solay from Not In Our Name.

Jesse Heiwa, from Queers for Peace and Justice, New York, pointed to the growing coalition of lesbian, gay, bi and trans organizations against the war. Brooklyn-based activists Viola Plummer from the December 12th Movement and City Councilman Charles Barron raised the need for anti-racist solidarity, including fighting for reparations. Singer Patti Smith and D.C. cultural artists Pam Parker and Lucy Murphy performed.

March on Wall Street

On April 3 2008 Michael Letwin, Co-Convener of NYCLAW endorsed a Bail Out the People Movement organized "March on Wall Street" ;

Because we must demand that the needs of the people come before the greed of the super rich. Millions are jobless and homeless, and millions more will be living on the streets if the government continues to waste trillions of dollars on saving wealthy bankers instead of saving people.

Labor for Palestine

On December 14, 2009 Labor for Palestine released an "Open Letter from U.S. Trade Unionists to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka: Boycott Apartheid Israel".

Signers of the letter included Michael Letwin of NYCLAW, Former President of UAW, ALAA, Al-Awda New York and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network/Labor.

Free Ahmad Sa'adat

July 10th, 2009 International Association of Democratic Lawyers joined an appeal to UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon demanding that he and the United Nations uphold their responsibilities to protect the rights of Palestinian prisoners and secure their freedom.

The appeal was launched by the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat.

Well over 400 international organizations and individuals have supported this call. Signatories of the letter include youth, student and workers' unions, solidarity organizations, lawyers' associations, political parties, human rights groups, and numerous activists, academics and supporters of Palestine from around the world.

Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a Palestinian national leader, is a leader in the Palestinian prisoners' movement. His recent hunger strike galvanized attention upon the prisoners' struggle. He is a living symbol of the oppression of the occupier and the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and the prisoners as they struggle for freedom, justice, liberation and return.

Signatories included Michael Letwin, Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War; Former President, Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325.

"Morales / Shakur Center" student suspensions event

On October 28, 2013, a City College administrator suspended Tafadar Sourov and Khalil Vasquez, two students who led demonstrations against the administration’s illegal raid and seizure of the Guillermo Morales / Assata Shakur Community Center. The Morales / Shakur Center is a space that has existed at City College for more than 20 years and was first won in 1989 through a mass student strike and occupations throughout CUNY.

In response to the attacks on our student leaders, students and community say: WE ARE NOT AFRAID. Repression will not end the campaign to save the Morales / Shakur Center or the broader struggle to liberate CUNY for the people. Hundreds on campus and in the community will follow their example. Any punitive measures against Taffy and Khalil will only be a lesson to the people that the CCNY administration dismisses the people’s concerns and that the people must escalate their mass actions.

Taffy and Khalil are fighting for the people, defending the last autonomous campus space that serves the community and defending the legacy of the people’s revolutionary heroes. THE PEOPLE MUST DEFEND TAFFY AND KHALIL. The people cannot stand aside and look as the City College administration attempts to isolate them and promote fake sellout student leaders who want to negotiate away the Center. The Center was won through struggle and will be reclaimed through struggle.

Revolutionary Student Coordinating Committee organized a meeting in Edgewater, 160 Convent Avenue,New York, Friday 8 November 2013, to organize resistance. Those indicating their willingness to attend on the Whenever website included Michael Letwin.