AFL-CIO Urges Support for Lafayette Park Hunger Strikers
Saturday, April 12, 2014(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
The AFL-CIO is offering logistical and
public support to a group of hunger strikers
who, starting last week, have been protesting
across from the White House, in Lafayette Park.
“The group, consisting of several families of
immigrants in detention centers or currently in
detention proceedings, has come to Washington
under the auspices of several of our grassroots
partners, including NDLON (the National Day
Laborers Organizing Network), the faith-based
national network PICO (People Improving
Communities through Organizing), Dream Action
Coalition (DRM), and others, including United
We Dream (UWD),” says the AFL-CIO’s Jon
Hiatt. “Through their hunger strike, the
participants and their supporters are calling
for an end to the inhumane deportations that are tearing communities
and families apart, and calling on the
Administration to grant administrative relief
necessary to accomplish this.” The AFL-CIO
has offered the hunger strikers access to their
facilities and is urging donations of household
items for the hunger strikers, who are in
temporary housing for the month: plates,
cooking ware, inflatable beds, sheets, chairs,
etc. A bin for donated items is being set up in
the AFL-CIO’s lobby area (815 16th Street);
if you have questions, contact Yanira Merino at
Ymerino@aflcio.org or Kelly
Rodriguez at Krodriguez@aflcio.org.
“We are asking all of you to welcome the
hunger strikers when you see them, and to offer
the same kind of hospitality that you gave the
Occupy Movement demonstrators who were based in
McPherson Square a couple of years ago,”
Hiatt adds.
photos: (top right)
18-year-old hunger striker Cynthia Diaz; photo
by Elise Foley/HuffPost;
(bottom left): Day 5 of the hunger strike;
courtesy NDLON Facebook
page