Robyn Porter
Template:TOCnestleft Robyn Artifaye Porter is a Berniecrat, a term used for those democrats (generally) running for office who have expressed support of former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.[1]
2021 Amistad Awards Host Committee
The Connecticut People's World Committee presented its annual Amistad Awards on Saturday December 12 2021 to mark the 102nd anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party USA, with awards being presented to Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, Pastor Rodney Wade of Waterbury and SEIU activist Azucena Santiago.
The Former Awardees Host Committee was Rob Baril, Jan Hochadel, Wildaliz Bermudez, Rochelle Palache, John Humphries, Ken Suzuki, Shellye Davis, Louise Simmons, Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, Peggy Buchanan, Robyn Porter, Camila Bortolleto, Carolina Bortolleto, Jeanette Morrison, Dan Livingston, Juan Brito Ciro Gutierrez, Cindy Harrity, Jill Marks, Alberto Bernardez, Dan Durant, Meg Riccio, Laurie Kennington, Edwin Vargas, Jr., Fatima Rojas, Toni Harp, Kurt Westby, Delphine Clyburn, Renae Reese, John Olsen, Carmen Boudier, Anna Montalvo, Gwen Mills, Alfred L. Marder, Juan Hernandez, Kathleen Cooper, Jorge Perez, Rev Scott Marks, John Harrity, Dolores Colon, Migdalia Castro, Blair Bertaccini, Teresa Younger, Pearl Granat.
Georgia On My Mind: The Third Reconstruction
Sunday, Feb. 28 2021 at 4 pm, the annual state-wide Connecticut People’s World African American History Month event will be held virtually. The theme, Georgia On My Mind: The Third Reconstruction, reflects the organizing and victory of the runoff election in Georgia last month which flipped the U.S. Senate to Democratic control.
Keynote speaker Lewis R. Gordon—social activist, musician, and head of the Philosophy Department at University of Connecticut—will highlight the event along with a panel of New Haveners who knocked on doors in Georgia campaigning with UNITE HERE.
Event organizers characterized the election in Georgia as “a call for fundamental reconstruction to finally uproot the poisonous legacy of slavery,” noting that the mobilization in Georgia “overcame every vicious white supremacist and corporate effort at voter suppression.”
Led by Stacey Abrams, more than 100,000 voters who did not participate in the Nov. 5 presidential election voted in the January run-off election, disproportionately voters of color and young voters.
Six of the 70 New Haven canvassers who went to Georgia with UNITE HERE and New Haven Rising to help get voters to the polls will tell their stories on the panel, including Marcey Lynn Jones, Remidy Sharref, Alder Ron Hurt, Juan Patterson, Justina Torres, and Rep. Robyn Porter.[2]
2021 Amistad Awards
Senator Richard Blumenthal gives special recognition to honorees at the Connecticut Communist Party’s annual awards ceremony. Connecticut People’s World Committee presented its annual Amistad Awards on Saturday December 12 to mark the 102nd anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party USA, with awards being presented to Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, Pastor Rodney Wade of Waterbury and SEIU activist Azucena Santiago.
Kushner, a former labor organizer for the United Auto Workers and co-chair of the General Assembly’s Labor and Public Employees Committee, received the award for her work on passing Connecticut’s $15 minimum wage, the paid family and medical leave program and her previous union organizing efforts to bring more diversity to the UAW.
Kushner’s award was presented by her Labor Committee co-chair, Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven, and previous Amistad Award winner.[3]
2020 Amistad awards
December 2020, from the moment the dramatic African drumming and slide show of the marches, rallies, car caravans, strikes, and election campaigns began, it was certain this would be an extraordinary and uplifting People's World Amistad Awards program.
Transformed from a large in-person statewide annual event into a virtual concert and awards, the program, “United for the World We Want—Celebrating Resilience, Solidarity, and Vision,” was held “in tribute to essential workers and all workers regardless of immigration status during the pandemic, the rise of the movement for Black lives, and the voter upsurge for democratic rights.”
The four awardees, each reflecting consistent and powerful organizing for worker rights, equality, and social justice, inspired participants with their live remarks as they received the large framed Amistad poster. The famed BODOMA Garifuna Culture Band, meanwhile, kept the spirit going with musical entertainment.
Rob Baril, president of SEIU District 1199 New England, received his award from State Rep. Robyn Porter, a former awardee also speaking by video from Georgia as part of the Unite Here team. Baril described 2020 both as an awful year from the pandemic to police killings to the economy, and also as the best of years, from the movements in response to the killings of Black lives, to the 80 million voters who rejected hate and embraced hope in the presidential election.
“Movements have to be born of hope,” he said. “I find that hope in the work of our members in home care, in group homes, nursing homes, hospitals who give from their heart every single day.”
Even as 20 of his union members and 20 family members died from COVID-19, yet “housekeepers, direct care workers, nurses, doctors, labeled as essential but treated as expendable, continue to make sure patients get the best care and make sure bosses understand they want nothing less than protections and make sure elected officials understand that Black and brown lives matter and that all health care workers lives matter.”
“Those are the seeds that will blossom into the flower of the movement that can change our state, change our country and change the world,” said Baril.
People's Charter endorser
The People's Charter was released by the Working Families Party shortly before the 2020 election.
Endorsers included Robyn Porter.
Endorsed by Our Revolution
Robyn Porter was endorsed by Our Revolution, an organization run by former campaign workers and supporters of former socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.[4]
Porcelen SpecRail strike
Negotiations with the company at Porcelen SpecRail were not going well. The company refused to budge on wages, a retirement plan, or health insurance. The 66 painters union (IUPAT) members began wearing buttons to work listing their demands to show their strength.
As the last bargaining session ended and union representatives were on their way to meet with the membership for a strike vote, the company suddenly produced a list of workers who they claimed, without any back up proof, had Social Security numbers or names that did not cross check. Many have worked at the company for as many as 10 to 28 years. The company said these immigrant workers would be fired unless they got their information corrected within one week’s time.
The union members refused to be intimidated by this threat to nearly half the workforce. They voted to strike, and have been on the picket line since March 1.
The workers immediately gained wide support from the Connecticut AFL-CIO and all its affiliate unions, from community groups including the immigrant and workers’ rights group Unidad Latina en Accion, and from elected officials including Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and chair of the Labor Committee of the state legislature, Robyn Porter.
Speaking at a solidarity rally at the picket line early Friday morning, Rep. Porter decried the fact that the company does not pay a living wage. “We are fighting to raise the minimum wage to $15,” she said. “That is still not a living wage but it is a step forward and it will help you,” she told the strikers.[5]
Doorknocking for Joe Aresimowicz
Thomas Connolly September 30 2018:
Door knocking today for Democratic Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz. Photo with State Rep. Robyn Porter and my beautiful wife, Carol. Great turnout today.
Elect those that will fight for working people and the disenfranchised. Volunteer -- Call your union or any progressive candidate's office and get involved! — with Robyn Artifaye Porter.