The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit yesterday to block North Carolina’s new voter suppression law that would disenfranchise more than 300,000 voters, mostly African American, young people and seniors. In a press conference, Attorney General Eric Holder said the law passed by the Republican-dominated legislature and signed by Gov. Pat McCrory (R) in August was a deliberate attempt to exclude voters of color. 

While thousands of North Carolina residents rally in opposition, the state legislature continues to push an extremist agenda that will harm the Tar Heel State's working families. The latest outrage is H.B. 74, which is targeted directly at the rights of not only workers, but local governments. A special section of the bill contains a giveaway to large agricultural manufacturers that would provide them a shield against farm workers organizing and bargaining for better rights. A separate bill, that has been a key target of "Moral Monday" protests, would make it harder for North Carolina residents to vote, creating the most restrictive voter suppression law in the country.

Apparently unwilling to face up to the North Carolina voters who are taking them to task each week for the extremist tea party/corporate agenda they are enacting, North Carolina legislators yesterday moved their normal Monday evening sessions back several hours to avoid the 12th Moral Monday protest at the state Capitol in Raleigh.

But once again, nearly 2,000 civil rights, union, student and other working family activists rallied yesterday evening to spotlight the legislature’s and Gov. Pat McCrory’s radical  actions, with a special emphasis on the continuing rollback of voting rights in North Carolina.   

Braving southern summer heat, humidity and waving signs, including “First the Great Recession, Now the Great Regression,” more than 2,000 North Carolinians gathered at the state Capitol in Raleigh at the 11th Moral Monday to protest extreme actions of the legislature and Gov. Pat McCrory (R).

With the focus on women’s issues—especially women’s health care—more than 100 people, including about 70 women, were arrested for civil disobedience when they refused to leave the General Assembly building.

Working families in North Carolina will continue their series of "Moral Monday" rallies today at the Halifax Mall in Raleigh to protest the extreme actions of the legislature and Gov. Pat McCrory (R). Thousands have attended the previous rallies.

Following the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling in the Shelby County v. Holder case striking down a portion of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), several states immediately took steps to increase voter suppression efforts. The court ruled unconstitutional the formula used to determine which states and locales needed to get preclearance from the Department of Justice before making changes in voting process. In recent years, Republicans have ramped up efforts to limit the right to vote, particularly through the use of voter identification laws that require eligible voters to purchase state-issued IDs before they can cast their ballots.

If you’re in or anywhere near Raleigh, N.C., the North Carolina State AFL-CIO urges you to join Moral Monday on June 24 to let Republican state legislators know what you think of their assault on working families.

Moral Mondays began in late April and have been growing, standing up to the legislature’s unemployment benefit cuts, higher taxes for the poor and working families, rejecting federal funds for Medicaid expansion and attacks on public schools and voting rights.

Justice triumphed in the squared circle in downtown Raleigh, N.C., in a masked Mexican luchadoras (female wrestlers) Tax Day rumble that pitted Juicy Buns, wrestling as “The People’s Champion,” against corporate-created and -backed “Champion of the Powerful,” The Scrambler.

More than 160 state and local labor federations and central labor councils have passed resolutions in support of comprehensive immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for aspiring citizens already in the United States.  The labor organizations that have passed resolutions so far come from 39 different states and represent more than 6 million workers.

Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed a bill Tuesday that will make life much harder for North Carolina's unemployed workers. Beginning July 1, new claims will be reduced from $535 to $350 as the maximum benefit per week. And while current recipients can get unemployment insurance payments for 26 weeks, that number will be cut to a maximum of somewhere between 12 to 20 weeks, the duration varying depending upon the state's unemployment rate. If the maximum fell below 19 weeks, North Carolina would offer the lowest maximum number of weeks in the country. The bill also rejects extra benefits allowed under federal law, which means that 170,000 residents will lose $780 million in current weekly payments.