TAA to Accept Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award in Washington, D.C. on Behalf of the Wisconsin Progressive Movement

The Teaching Assistants’ Association (TAA), along with Madison Teachers Inc. (MTI), will accept the Domestic Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award on behalf of the Wisconsin Progressive Movement on Wednesday, October 12th in at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

The award recognizes the courageous actions of the more than 100,000 Wisconsinites who took to the streets and occupied the Wisconsin Capitol to express their opposition to Gov. Walker’s attack on collective bargaining rights earlier this year. U.S. Representative Tammy Baldwin will present the award.

The award honors Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) staff Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean diplomat and former director of the Institute’s Transnational Institute, and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, an IPS development associate, who were murdered by a car bomb on September 21, 1976, by agents of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Each year in October, the Institute for Policy Studies hosts the annual human rights award in the names of Letelier and Moffitt to honor these fallen human rights activists while celebrating new heroes of the human rights movement from the United States and the Americas.

The TAA, along with the Student Labor Action Coalition (SLAC), the United Council of UW Students and other student groups played a pivotal role in sparking national movement that “continue[s] to challenge an unjust status quo and breathe new life into the progressive movement” (IPS, Sept. 14, 2011).

The TAA has been widely recognized for its leadership in the struggle for workers rights in Wisconsin in the face of Walker’s unprecedented attack on the basic human right of workers to have a collective voice in their workplaces. In September, the UC Berkeley Labor Center presented the TAA with an award at its “Labor All-Stars Award Gala.” The annual event honors working people who have given great inspiration, carried out acts of immense courage, and done the day-to-day hard work to improve the lives of working families. The UC Berkeley Labor Center educates a diverse new generation of labor leaders and members through cutting edge training programs and workshops.

The Teaching Assistants’ Association is one of the oldest graduate employee unions in the world and represents nearly 3,000 graduate employees at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 7, 2011

Contact:
Alex Hanna, TAA co-president, 608-466-0790, alex.hanna@gmail.com
Adrienne Pagac, TAA co-president, 608-772-4103, adrienne.pagac@gmail.com

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