Labor migration has always existed (tags)
Labor migration to Germany has a history: Italian guest workers in the 1960s The labor shortage in the countryside is becoming increasingly noticeable, and it is becoming more and more difficult to find local workers; on the other hand, the demand for migrant workers, mainly foreigners, is increasing. (...)
Immigrants Are Not Hurting US-Born Workers (tags)
immigration is contributing to strong economic growth—with future immigration forecast to boost real gross domestic product by 2% over the next 10 years—as well as increasing government revenue. Immigrants are also complementing U.S.-born workers by contributing to overall population and workforce growth.
China's further development has priority (tags)
The focus of Chinese policy remains the economic and social development of the country... Despite the enormous successes in economic and social development, there is still a long way to go before China catches up and can also keep up with the rich industrialized countries
The end of the "Golden Age" of cqapitalism and the rise of neoliberalism (tags)
The rise of the neoliberal world economic system marked by the dominance of financial markets – whose financial superstructure collapses over us – resulted from the radical economic crises of the early 1970s that seized nearly all western industrial countries.
Car Plants Are Making Medical Equipment - And Things Should Stay That Way (tags)
The time has come for progressive nationalization and socialization. This includes the financial sector, because only if we gain control over the financing of socially necessary areas of production will it be possible to ensure that we as a society can plan our future.
Lockdown light - Corona crisis and capitalism (tags)
The pandemic and countermeasures have effects shaped by the neoliberal form of capitalism[ that has dominated since the 1980s. 1.the independence of the financial sphere ,2.the fragmentation of the labor markets, and 3.the weakening of social systems.
Oregon: the toughest heat protection law in the US (tags)
Heat waves are becoming more frequent and longer. Farm workers, people on construction sites, and even firefighters have been largely dependent on the goodwill of their employers during a heat wave. How long Oregon's heat protection law will remain in effect is unknown.
The 1960s, when incomes rose for almost all workers, ended with a massive wave of strikes. Since the 1980s, the incomes of most Americans have fallen, working hours have risen massively, and job security has become a foreign word. But strikes have been extremely rare.
“An injury to one is the concern of all.” The events of 1886 – powerful displays of solidarity and mass strikes for an eight-hour work day followed by absolute abuses of state power in executing innocent labor organizers – continue to inspire workers to demand fair, just workplaces & laws.
Bidenomics, One Year Later (tags)
The Center for American Progress takes a different approach, examining the successes of President Biden’s bold economic policies and calling for the continuation and expansion of those policies in the years ahead by making permanent expansions to the safety net.
Destrosying what is destroying the planet? (tags)
The decisions of the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow are a disaster. They seal the course for a drastic and irreversible heating of the earth, which threatens the survival of hundreds of millions of people and countless animal and plant species.
Keeping Business Alive: The Government Will Pay (tags)
A buyer-of-last-resort program would alleviate the hardship of workers and businesses. It would maintain the cash flow for families and businesses, so that the coronavirus shock has no secondary impacts on demand — Business activity is on hold today, but with an intravenous cash flow, it can be kept alive
Is China in danger of collapse? and Anti-economics and anti-politics (tags)
In the process of modernization, the relationship between market and state can be boiled down to the formula of a general law: the more market, the more state... The bloated market and the bloated state can only live or die together.
The Virtues of a 28-hour Week: Work less, pollute less (tags)
The number of workers is growing faster than the amount of work available. We live in a society where work is poorly distributed. Three days off for every four days worked could be liberating. The goal would be increased well-being, gaining time and losing a kind of consumption not really synonymous with pleasure.
Digitization and poverty (tags)
Technology is replacing human labor. .. A widely acclaimed study by Carl Frey and Michael Osborne estimates that 47 percent of U.S. jobs in manufacturing, retail, or service industries such as medicine, banking, or architecture are at risk.
How is Corona changing the world of work? (tags)
Exceptional situations do not necessarily have to be handled in an authoritarian manner; efficiency does not have to be generated in command structures. Independent action by employees becomes productive in democratic structures - perhaps the Corona crisis has also triggered processes that go in this direction.
Time to end the panic mode (tags)
Tyrannies reverse the rule of law. They turn law into an instrument of injustice. They cloak their crimes in false legality. They use the outward decorum of courts and trials to disguise their criminality.
Top Economist: As Pandemic Recedes, a Chance to Rethink Unemployment (tags)
The Chamber of Commerce, for example, has pushed the U.S. to stop expanded unemployment insurance benefits so that people will be forced to return to low-wage jobs. Some Republican-dominated states have jumped on board with this idea.
Amazon's Meteoric Rise in World Capitalism (tags)
Amazon's meteoric rise is, in our view, a key moment in global capitalism. The company's rise to power reflects the increasing influence of neoliberal politics and corporate power in general. It represents a major shift in the global political economy, what we call Amazon capitalism.
Unemployment myth and "Migrantization" of precarity (tags)
Involuntary unemployment is afflicted with many prejudices, which impute a supposed lack of motivation and utility to those affected. Although these prejudices are easy to refute, politicians and representatives of the media cling to the neoliberal notion of individual guilt in unemployment. Unemployment has structural causes.
Corona and state. The winner is the one who defeats the pandemic (tags)
Societies in Europe have accumulated enormous wealth, but a few wealthy people have appropriated it. With this wealth, the comprehensive work break and all solidarity measures can be financed without any problems. That is why we demand the introduction of a Europe-wide Covid solidarity levy on high wealth.
Struggles in the Shadow of the Pandemic (tags)
For Trump, wealth, privilege, and power was even license to invent reality as he saw fit. Thus any divergence from his worldview and interests were ‘fake news’. Trump ensured the plutocratic wealthy were no longer in the political shadows but now in the mainstream.
Fighting the "Immigrant Threat" (tags)
The current rise in precarious work is better understood in the context of neoliberal reform, processes of deregulation, deindustrialization, and deunionization, as well as the growing inequality that has resulted.
It is up to workers to defang the fascists (tags)
How to stop the fascist upsurge.
Vaccination Update for Our Community (tags)
Residents of our community who are 65 years old and older can now register for COVID-19 vaccination appointments. The opening of appointment registration for a new tier today comes as the County opens five large capacity vaccination sites.
Easing into a New Normality of the Crisis (tags)
With the intertwining of the Corona and economic crises, massive distribution struggles are already looming. Society, in a collective effort to prevent illness, has downsized its economic activity. This collective decision must not serve to enrich a few. The radical taxation of the great fortunes is indispensable.
Farm Animals And Covid-19 (tags)
We know that animals are murdered for human appetite, tortured in laboratory research. As pets or watchdogs kept outside they freeze in winter and bake in summer. There is a new area involving them
Farm Animals Can Catch Covid-19, The Vaccine Court, RFK V Fauci (tags)
Farm animals, hunted animals, and horses sometimes sent to European slaughterhouses can contract Covid-19. The abuse of the Vaccine Court RFK Jr exposes Anthony Fauci's corruption
The New Deal and Self-destructive Donald Trump (tags)
From 1929 to 1932 industrial production halved and in a chain reaction over 5000 banks went bankrupt. Farmers' incomes shrank by 70 percent, unemployment rose to 25 percent, and there were no welfare state measures to cushion the misery.
Underreported Cause Of Covid-19 Deaths In US And Elsewhere (tags)
The filthiest places in any country are the slaughterhouses. Animals are defecating and urinating in terror. Their blood spills everywhere. Slaughterhouses throughout the US as well as in England, Wales, Portugal, France, Germany, The Netherlands etc have been hotspots for Covid-19 transmission.
America's Dual Recession (tags)
There is every reason to expect that many of the lost jobs – perhaps as many as 40% – will never come back. In the short to medium term, the tragic paradox is that employment opportunities are both too few and pay too little.
July 2020 Honduras Coup Update (tags)
This July 2020 in Honduras we saw many killings and disappearances against activists and we saw many COVID-19 deaths including of a political prisoner, an organiser, health care workers and jorunalists. Living under a dictatorship regime where global and national capital, together with regime leaders, continue to profit through laundering and exploiting the people and the land – when you put a pandemic into that equation it’s a disaster, as we can see in Honduras. Government offers no protection for its poor majority, the money officially designated for healthcare doesn’t translate into actual healthcare, and there is no welfare to enable people to stay home, but the military is controlling the streets and spreading the illness. Communities and organisations continue to campaign for the ‘Where is the money?’ campaign, with voices reverberating from zoom conferences, to managing to stage large letters across highways, printing the question on roads for drivers to see, and on walls for passers-by – people must have found holes in the militarisation. They paint their pained words about losing increasing numbers of fellow Hondurans to death from COVID-19, lives lost due to government’s greed and lies. This July 2020 we saw many attacks against people and organisers, and we continue to see that on the other hand, big businesses that don’t even have environmental permits are free to move around, operate, and act in ways that are harmful to people and environment. And similar to discourse familiar to all of us worldwide about balancing the economy over staying home, this regime, like others, is broadcasting that the nation only has a chance of surviving the pandemic, if ‘development (mega) projects’ of mining, logging, energy etc go ahead and if people also put up with low wages (not to mention threats, killings, and arrests to impose opposed projects) so that large profits can be made from them. International development finance organisations also continue to ignore the violence meted out by capital and by the regime and fuel this fire, passing loans to the regime and ignoring cries from communities who dream of a different kind of ‘development’. https://sydneywithhonduras.wordpress.com/2020/08/30/july-2020-honduras-coup-and-pandemic-update/
June 2020 Honduras Coup and Pandemic Update (tags)
https://sydneywithhonduras.wordpress.com/2020/07/17/june-2020-honduras-coup-and-pandemic-update/ In June 2020, police assassinated a man at a police checkpoint, police brutally bashed transport workers in protest, a newspaper director goes public about knowing of plans to kill him that come from the state, COVID-19 outbreak in prisons have worsened and impacts on political prisoners, only one of whom had been released during June while over 1600 other prisoners were released for COVID-19 reasons. A number more of health care workers had died of COVID-19 in Honduras and cases shot up during this month to upwards of 20,000 confirmed cases.
The war metaphor in the Corona crisis (tags)
Instead of a positive elimination of conditions, a social regression could also occur: intensified competition in the fight for market share, "exclusive solidarity" (Klaus Dörre) in the fight for jobs and welfare benefits. Will governments master the crisis?
May Day, May Day. The LA Right Cry For An Opened Southland (tags)
May Day Covid Anti-lockdown Protesters call for an Opened California at LA City Hall
May Day, May Day. The LA Right Cry For An Opened Southland (tags)
May Day Covid Anti-lockdown Protesters call for an Opened California at LA City Hall
May Day, May Day. The LA Right Cry For An Opened Southland (tags)
May Day Covid Anti-lockdown Protesters call for an Opened California at LA City Hall
May Day, May Day. The LA Right Cry For An Opened Southland (tags)
May Day Covid Anti-lockdown Protesters call for an Opened California at LA City Hall
Wildcat strikes by essential workers coalesce on May Day
How do you prepare for the time when the affluent society crumbles? French intellectuals have even declared a new science - "collapsology." Solidarity is the humane and enlightened answer, not the assault rifle. Rep. Omar proposes a rent and mortgage moratorium.
Dying to work at amazon (tags)
The human cost of obscene profits
The Hypnosis of Patriotism (tags)
Patriotism is an unnatural,unreasonable, harmful feeling for our times, which causes much of the evil from which mankind suffers.
Last Summer's 'Mysterious' Nuclear Explosion (tags)
A 'mysterious' nuclear explosion in Russia last August still begs out attention.
The rulers want to divert from the real causes of the refugee wave and from their own misdeeds because the cause of the misery is an exploitation crisis of capital and the greed of mammoth world corporations. Only the prospect for a future in their country can stop refugees.
Driven to Consumption and Money out of Nothng (tags)
Growth originally created a material prosperity about which earlier generations could only dream. However, more economic growth does not lead to people becoming happier. We are prisoners of a system that forces us to permanent growth. Banks create credits.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon, The Washington Post, Whole Foods, Etc (tags)
Washington Post reporters are to be commended for their tremendous investigative work in uncovering details of Donald Trump regime crimes. Their work is a separate issue from the record of Jeff Bezos
Pantarchy: Voluntary State and a New Catholic Church: Stephen Pearl Andrews (tags)
The Libertarian Socialism of Individualist Anarchist Stephen Pearl Andrews.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon, The Washington Post, Whole Foods, Etc (tags)
Jeff Bezos is the world's richest person having a wealth of 150 billion dollars. Jeff Bezos abuses his Amazon workers in Europe and the US, is one of the world's major deforesters from Amazon cardboard and nonrecycled book paper to Washington Post newsprint, has profiteered from animal murder as a cattle rancher and owner of Whole Foods.
Summer 2018 National Immigrant Solidarity Network News Alert! (tags)
Trump's Animals ICE And Prisoner Sexual Abuse Racists Are On The Loose!
Hormel Slaughterhouse Blood Mist Paralyzing Workers (tags)
The USDA founded in 1906 in response to Upton Sinclair's description of the agony of pigs at a Hormel plant in MN. is In 2011 once again in the news, because its workers are being paralyzed by inhaling blood mist
Get The Internationalist No. 51! (tags)
Get The Internationalist No. 51! A journal of revolutionary Marxism. Send US (includes postage) to Mundial Publications, Box 3321 Church Street Station, New York, NY 10008 USA. Subscriptions .
Tech workers organize
March 2018 Honduras Coup Again Update (tags)
March 2018 in Honduras... Chiquita banana workers have been on strike for more than two months - their barricades were this month evicted with gunshots and teargas bombs wounding workers and children. Another protest of youths in Choluteca were similiarly met with police gunshots - kids were wounded and arrested. This and other news with further details in this update https://sydneywithhonduras.wordpress.com/
Refused sharing and rediscovery of sharing are signs of this time. "This economy kills." So Pope Francis judges socio-economic conditions. Taxing the rich is vital. With additional revenue, workers would not feel threatened by immigrants
Capitalism Criticism 2.0 (tags)
"Capitalism contains crisis as rain clouds contain rain" (Jean Juares, 19th century socialist). Profits increase in the neoliberal model, not investment (Nicolas Krowall). The competitive pressure drives businessmen to reduce investments in labor and wages.
12/2-3 LA Binational Conference To Cancel NAFTA and Unite Workers Of Mexico and the US (tags)
A binational conference of US and Mexican workers will be held on Dec 2&3 on the fight to cancel NAFTA and for unity between US and Mexican workers
Benjamin Tucker: American Mutualist Part 2: Freedoms in the Individualist Society (tags)
Tucker's individualist society is based solely on contract so the associations or 'governments' in the individualist society could be any way people choose. The society would be organized in any way people wished and those who did not wish to take part would not have too. For example the society could be extremely democratic or extremely hierarchical, extremely religious or extremely atheist, or anything in between ect ect.. and those who disagreed would not have to live by the society rules as long as they do not forcefully impose their views on others. The only rule is everyone is to 'mind their own business'.
Benjamin Tucker: American Mutualist Part 1 (tags)
In an Individualist Mutualist market economy of Josiah Warren, Benjamin Tucker, or Stephen Pearl Andrews employers can indeed pay themselves more money than their employees for equal time worked however even though they can pay themselves more money than their employees for equal time worked they are still Mutualists and not Capitalists. Why is this?
Dont eat Beef??Allergic to Eggs??Read This for a Link to Poultry Workers (tags)
From Texas to Delaware there is a belt of poultry plants that pay less than beef workers and have carpal tunel syndrome after days of cutting.Although there is a significant presence of female Hispanics in over 40% of the plant Black female are over 60% of the worforce.
Class War on the Waterfront: Longshore Workers Under Attack (tags)
ILWU Local 10 retired longshoreman Jack Heyman talks about technology and the danger of a proposed 8 year contract.
PBS POV "The Uprising of 1934" Textile workers in the SE challenge unjust order (tags)
PBS POV has come out with a while ago ago the 1934 textile strike in 5 SE states with many mills and hundreds of thousands of whait workers who were not protected by New Deal legislation during a hard Great Depression. According to Clooney thosands were blacklisted a 7 murdered
Get The Internationalist No. 48! (tags)
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April 2017 Honduras coup update (tags)
This April 2017 in Honduras, repression goes on, with melon industry worker/unionists threatened and interrogated by armed people on city highways, with organised farmers with years of living on land growing food getting arrested, with cops arresting high school students for participating in a protests where others had damaged cops' repressive tanks with stones, with stones and other things that can cause bodily harm being thrown at prochoice feminist demonstrators, with a public hospital doctor being suspended and threatened for saying the fees increase against patients is wrong .. these and a bit more here: https://sydneywithhonduras.wordpress.com/ https://sydneywithhonduras.wordpress.com/
Get The Internationalist No. 47! (tags)
Get The Internationalist No. 47! Send US$0.50 to Mundial Publications, Box 3321 Church Street Station, New York, NY 10008 USA. Subscriptions $10.
Rethinking Working Hours (tags)
Working hours was and is a contested terrain. Power questions are involved: Who decides over time? Who determines when and how long someone works? Who decides over part time or full time, how work and private life are arranged or whether the dream of world travel becomes reality?
February 2017 Honduras coup update (tags)
https://sydneywithhonduras.wordpress.com/ In February 2017, another indigenous Tolupán activist was murdered, attacks against Copinh and supporters in the calls for justice continue, uni students were attacked again by uni administration, and for asking questions about it a week later, a journalist was attacked. Meanwhile, workers are feeling the squeeze with more dismissed public service workers than ever before, and mining workers fighting for bearable work conditions and pay
US-Mexico Border Worker Solidarity March/Action Against NAFTA & For Driscolls Agricultur (tags)
Mexican and US workers and activists joined on both sides of the border to oppose the wall, racist attacks and NAFTA. They also called for unity of US and Mexican workers against the multi-nationals that exploit workers on both sides of the border
107 More Groups Oppose Neil Gorsuch (tags)
107 women's, labor, civil rights, abolition of death penalty, gay and other groups join the mass movement opposing Neil Gorsuch
January 2017 Honduras coup update (tags)
The January update is up. First up is a call out from Copinh for actions in March, one year on from Bertha's murder, but also, her birth month, and Copinh's birth month. And there's been a report coming out from Global Witness on Honduras, the state reacted furiously to this. And in lawmaking, Honduran state wants to make it law that cops and soldiers kill people in Honduras - it happens but they want to make it law. And, a gunfiring violent eviction against another farmers occupation. Another journalist killed. Melon workers fight for their rights. 17 year old killed by soldier. Read more on the blog.
IG Leaflet: LET THEM IN! (tags)
No Ban, No Wall – Full Citizenship Rights for All! Smash Racist Ban on Muslims, Refugees
University of California Riverside Students Walkout (tags)
UCR Students walkout on January 20th
Teamsters Local 2010 Initiates Mass Walkout and Strikes at University of California (tags)
Teamsters Local 2010 Initiates Mass Walkout and Strikes at University of California
LA Solidarity Protest Rally For Japanese American Apparel Workers Who Face Loss (tags)
American Apparel Workers Union Japan
Standing Rock Solidarity Action (tags)
Community groups picket Safariland- a manufacturer of police weapons in Ontario, CA.
To Defeat Trump … And the Democrats, Fight for Workers Revolution (tags)
After all the media hype, suddenly it turned out that Republican Donald Trump was elected. The racist, sexist, immigrant-bashing, woman-molesting Trump would be the next CEO of the United States and commander-in-chief of U.S. imperialism. In deep shock and disbelief, tens of millions asked, how could this happen? In Muslim, Latino, African American and immigrant families there was raw fear. Soon mass protests began, with many chanting “Not My President” (as if Democrat Clinton, a certified warmonger, would have been?). At the same time, racist incidents multiplied. It is urgently necessary to fight back, but the question is how? The answer depends on understanding what happened, and why. Trump certainly mobilized the hard-core racist vote, and better-off middle class voters. But what put him over the top was the vote of residents of dying small towns and white workers in the Rust Belt, who have seen their jobs destroyed and cities devastated. The fact is that with their economic policies, the Democrats pushed millions of workers into the arms of Trump. What is urgently needed is to break from the Democrats, Republicans and all capitalist parties and build a class-struggle workers party. Such a party would fight for a program of mass workers action against the deportations, for workers defense guards against racist attacks, and to oppose the imperialist war drive in a struggle leading to workers revolution.
Over the past week unions wrapped up short strikes at whiskey maker Jim Beam in Kentucky and Libbey Glass in Toledo, Ohio. The walkouts involved some 250 workers at distilleries in Clermont and Boston, Kentucky, and close to 1,000 workers at table glassmaker Libbey in Toledo.
September 2016 Honduras coup update (tags)
September in Honduras. A barber was assassinated after an angry comment to the president on his own facebook. Farmers setting up occupation were violently evicted. Indigenous leaders forced to go into hiding. Lack of justice continues on the Berta Caceres case, this month with an arbitrary arrest against Copinh, her file was stolen by someone robbing the judge's car, and the finance organisation FMO wrote one of the gross reports that doesn't try much to really look like it cares about human rights. This and other news, read on..
Basta Ya, Brussels! British Voters Reject EU Corporte Slavestate (tags)
“The EU is an instrument of the ruling classes of Europe for the imposition of brutal austerity measures—most directly on the workers of Greece, of Spain, Portugal and Ireland, but also on workers in the UK, France and Germany….Prime minister, Cameron, has even proclaimed an “Age of Austerity” as his government imposes cuts of £210 billion, (€263 billion), equivalent to over 10 percent of Britain’s GDP, at the cost of the destruction of 20 percent of all public sector jobs, millions more in the private sector and the decimation of vital services.
2016 AT&T Shareholders engaged by Communications Workers of America D9 Activists (tags)
The April 29, 2016 AT&T Shareholders meeting was attended by labor activists/shareholders of the Communications Workers of America District 9 of California. Despite efforts to silence the voices of labor and progressive shareholders, activists managed to engage top executives, including CEO and Chair Randall Stephenson. There was also discussion and considerable controversy over the ratification of Ernst & Young LLP as "independent" auditors and shareholder proposals for transparency in political donations and lobbying.
Fukushima + 5: The Disaster Continues (tags)
Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear industry, in the US and beyond, and highlights the efforts of those who are working to create a nuclear free future. Here is this month's issue.
(A-Radio) Berlin: Anarchosyndicalist struggle in vegan pizzeria (tags)
As Anarchist Radio Berlin we had the opportunity of talking to a member of the anarchosyndicalist union FAU in Berlin. Until very recently he was involved in a worker's struggle concerning the dismissal of two workers from a vegan Pizzeria and tells us about the background of the struggle, the methods they used and the succesful end of the campaign. Further topics are the situation of migrant workers in Berlin and the issue of self-organizing of those workers.
Peace and coexistence Intifada in Israel (tags)
Israeli and Arab teens party for coexistence in ISrael
January 2016 Honduras Coup update (tags)
This month in Honduras, 6 and a half years into the coup, attacks including fatal attacks continue against indigenous persons defending territory, workers from different walks of life, journalists, and even politicians. And from the general news section there are worrying warnings of increases of mass deportations from US, about Zika virus having been introduced as another US intervention as a form of biological warfare, and some updates on corruption and who is getting away with it and who might appear not to be..
Landmark UAW International Ruling Rejects Local BDS Resolution (tags)
BDS resolution defeated by bUAW international Union
Philippines: Climate Focus - Time to act is now on energy transformation (tags)
What could possibly be so urgent and life-threatening to drive leaders of people from a small and barely reachable island off the coast of Mindoro to leave their homes and travel 285 kilometers by land and sea over the period of five days just to reach Metro Manila? On November 27, a day before the biggest climate justice march in the country, they have reach the Presidential Palace.
Tyson Foods, 2nd Largest Slaughter Operation Worldwide, Charged With Animal Cruelty (tags)
Tyson's Kills Millions Of Cows And Pigs And 22.1 Billion Chickens A Year. Workers have many injuries, some deaths. Over 45 billion chickens and turkeys in the US died of avian flu. Tyson's is the 2nd largest slaughter operation in the world and supplies McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, KFC, WalMart, IGA etc. and prisons
After the Attacks in Paris (tags)
“We are at war!”: such is the leitmotiv of government officials and politicians from the various French parties, after the deadly attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis.
October 2015 Honduras Coup Update (tags)
News from Honduras under continued military coup rule and supposed combat against corruption
Reviews: Submission as Freedom. Life in Neoliberalism (tags)
The challenge of neoliberalism took an offensive form in the global North with the victories of Reagan and Thatcher. No coup and no dictatorship were needed to gain mass support for carrying out the political ideological hegemony Stagnation, unemployment and futurelessness
Philippines: Unions decry deceptive, vague ‘labor agenda’ of APEC (tags)
ORGANIZED workers sneered at the so-called labor agenda in the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila next month by describing it as deceptive and vague, which merely reaffirms APEC’s ideology based on the primacy of corporate power and profits over labor and trade union rights.
Turkey: Class War against Capitalism! (tags)
On Saturday, October 10th, a terrible bombing attack struck the event organized by the “pro-Kurdish” HDP opposition party as a part of the election campaign
The Coded World: Loss of Democracy and Abandonment of Knowledge (tags)
Neoliberalism is the enemy of knowledge. Specialized knowledge and the experience of skilled workers are sought less and less in a world ruled by simple numbers and algorithms. Through economization, powerful private enterprises manipulate or withhold information.
social injustice
Living and Working Differently and Self-Optimization (tags)
How did neoliberal policy gain a mass influence? To neoliberalism, we must soon oppose a great alternative narrative of freedom, democracy and solidarity before the social dislocations neutralize the positive resources amid a collapsing world climate.
Reduced Working Hours as a Socio-Economic Investment (tags)
In these Austrian articles, reduced working hours is seen as a socio-economic investment, not as a cost-trap. In a 1909 study by Sidney Chapman, shorter working hours leads to higher productivity and greater output. More time sovereignty and better health of workers would be long-term gains
Saudis Brutalize Migrants (tags)
Saudis
MANILA – ‘Morong 43’ arrest, detention illegal — CHR (tags)
Five years since the arrest, detention and release of the 43 health workers dubbed as the “Morong 43,” the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has finally issued a resolution stating that state forces violated the rights of the health workers.
Philippine President Aquino no longer deserves any support from workers and trade unions (tags)
THE workers and the trade unions throughout the world mark today the International Labor Day – 125th anniversary globally and 112th celebration here in the Philippines. This historic and revered day has been an enduring and stirring symbol for the working class despite serious setbacks caused by multipronged and systematic neoliberal attacks against the workers, the masses and their organizations, which have seriously threatened to dilute if not totally wipe out the hard-fought sociopolitical gains achieved by the labor movement in the past hundred years or so.
Free collection of articles.
PHILIPPINES: Rescind the LRT-MRT Fare Hikes (tags)
Metro-Manila: The roughly 100 percent fare increases imposed on users of the Light Rail Transit 1 and 2 and Metro Rail Transit 3 is a great disservice to the riding public.
The Internationalist No. 38 is out! (tags)
Get the journal of revolutionary Marxism -- contact an Internationalist supporter or send US$0.50 to Mundial Publications, Box 3321 Church Street Station, New York, NY 10008 USA. Five issue/one year subscription $10.
Connecticut Governor Race: Dan Malloy Rather Than Foley: Factory Closing Union Buster (tags)
In the Connecticut governor race, voters are being informed of the unionbusting, factory closing profiteering of the Republican candidate Tom Foley, who was a fundraiser and state election coordinator for George Bush.
The Uber-fication of the Democratic Party (tags)
For decades, the Democrats have been the workingperson's party, but no longer. Many important muck-e-mucks have abandoned the beleaguered worker.
Asian Socialism Conference in the Philippines (tags)
The Asian Socialism Conference will be held in Manila from November 28 to 29, 2014. The conference will be capped by the participation of guests and delegates to the November 30 rally in Manila to commemorate Bonifacio Day, a national hero who led the armed struggle in the revolution against Spain.
The BRICS: Challengers to the Global Status Quo (tags)
Can the BRICS wrest control of the global economy from the United States and Europe, or will their internal contradictions tear them apart?
In LA, San Diego, Sacramento and 147 Other Cities, McD And Other Fast Food Workers Picket (tags)
Dozens were arrested around the country as workers in 150 cities picketed fast food chains
Organized Labor in America Today (tags)
labor
Despite growth in the Philippines, labor underscores systemic failure in rising inequality (tags)
Exclusive growth for exclusive group of wealthiest businessmen.
Is AFT Pres Weingarten On The Take? (tags)
Is AFT President Randi Weingarten and other officials of the AFT/CFT and NEA/CTA taking millions of dollars from "non-profits" funded by union busters and privatizers such as the Gates Foundation, Broad Foundation and others is the question that attorney and education advocate Kathy Carroll answers
Circus Elephants Used for Children’s Rides Go Out of Control (tags)
Animal Defenders International (ADI) has released film of elephants used for children’s rides fighting as workers try to control them with bullhooks, metal bars and stun guns.
A Tribute to Filipino Labor Leader Romy Castillo (tags)
Who was labor leader Romy Castillo to this young activist?
Don't work for IBM, Infosys, or Manpower (tags)
Don't work for IBM, Infosys, or Manpower. They discriminate against American workers in favor of guest workers.
Democracy and socialism (tags)
Democracy is the most popular word in the vocabulary of politics but also the most brazenly abused.
Fight for 15 in LA has been hitting stores along Crenshaw
MayDay4All Coalition May Day March 2014 (tags)
Photos from the May Day march that started in Chinatown.
Time to act with urgency and determination to improve the lives of Filipino workers (tags)
Philippines: As the country observes the International Labor Day, Akbayan Party would like to draw attention to the inability of the current economic growth to translate into an improvement in the lives of ordinary workers from both the urban centers and the countryside. While the Aquino administration takes pride on the 7.2 % growth rate for 2013, it cannot mask the fact that this growth has been insufficient to curb massive unemployment and poverty.
Philippines: Inclusive growth under Aquino no longer possible (tags)
WITH only two years left in his term as he now enters his fourth year in office, President Aquino could now be described as either unwilling or unable to make the country’s much-hyped economic growth inclusive.
San Diego May Dai Workers Film Festival (tags)
Workers Film Festival returns to San Diego this May Day weekend at the Digital Gym Cinema in North Park! We've got a strong line-up of the most recent international films that connect workers and social justice struggles. Join us Friday May 2nd - Sunday May 4th. We'll also have a labor art exhibit, live music and a pop-up book shop.
Technology, Unemployment and Policy Options (tags)
Navigating the Transition to a Better World
CASTORIADIS. THE MEANING OF SOCIALISM .pdf (tags)
http://is.gd/EQUALITY
Obamacare Harms America's Workforce (tags)
Obamacare
Our Triple Jobs Problem (tags)
First, even as unemployment has inched down, the economy has created barely enough jobs to match population growth. Second, this enormous labor-market “slack” has stifled workers’ bargaining power and kept wages low. Third, policies over 30 years have undermined workers
NAFTA's Deplorable Legacy (tags)
NAFTA
Corporate Taxes in America (tags)
taxes
Video: Republican Theme Song - Nothing Really Matters and The Fear Economy (tags)
Thanks to House Speaker John Boehner and his Republican caucus, the "Do-Nothing Congress" was so awful this year that I decided it deserved its own theme song. I had fun putting together this video—which also calls out some uplifting wins MoveOn members and other progressives were able to achieve this year
Disturbing Obamacare Surprises (tags)
Obamacare
Inside the paranoid Maoist cults of 1970s Britain (tags)
The couple accused in the case of alleged “domestic slavery” in London were reportedly the leaders of a tiny Maoist sect, the Workers’ Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, which had gone “underground” in the late 1970s. To understand how the Workers’ Institute ended up so far off the radar, we need to understand where they came from – the strange world of radical Maoist politics in 1970s London.
Market Euphoria During Troubled Times (tags)
markets
Modern Day Slavery in Qatar (tags)
Qatar
The Time Has Come For $15 Minimum Wage (tags)
In one of comedian Chris Rock’s routines, he observes: “You know what that means when someone pays you a minimum wage? You know what your boss is trying to say? ‘Hey, if I could pay you less, I would, but it’s against the law.’”
Philippines - ‘Morong 43’ member killed in Bulacan encounter (tags)
Philippines– A member of the Morong 43 was killed in an encounter with government troops in Bulacan early this month, the military revealed Thursday.
Israel
The UAW Takes One Step Forward, and One Backward (tags)
Trying to rebound off the ropes, where it has been pummeled for the past several decades, The United Auto Workers (UAW) has launched an aggressive organizing campaign in the South, in line with an AFL-CIO resolution emphasizing organizing there, where unionization rates are weak across the board.
Fast Food Workers Win a Union…through Zoolidarity (tags)
Union members have watched in awe as fast food workers struck over the last year, calling for “$15 and a union.” Despite the slogan, however, the prevailing wisdom has been that union recognition isn’t really the goal; that’s too hard against giant employers insulated by a layer of franchises, with a part-time and transient workforce.
At the AFL-CIO Convention, Leaders Ask: What Direction for Labor? (tags)
The acknowledgment of Labor’s existential crisis and the recognition that something must be done to resolve it is the key issue at the AFL-CIO’s four-day quadrennial convention in Los Angeles. The urgency of the situation has compelled Labor’s top officials to experiment in a search for solutions.
The Egyptian Revolution’s Next Barrier (tags)
When the Egyptian army first began its offensive against the Muslim Brotherhood, many speculated that such an assault would likely be extended to the same revolutionaries who demanded — in massive demonstrations — that President Morsi be evicted from office.
What Can We Learn from 25 Years of Jobs with Justice? (tags)
It’s no secret that the last 30 years have seen a brutal corporate assault on U.S. workers. Incomes and union membership rates have plummeted, unemployment is soaring, and the two corporate parties have joined forces to go after our previously untouchable historic gains.
Geekout Bookmarks 9/1/2013 (tags)
This is an irregular experimental feature to gather the links which I've posted to facebook and twitter over the past few days into a short digest. Most of the links are mainstream. I'll try to do better next time. Enjoy.
Wage Slavery in the American Auto Industry: Obama’s Shame (tags)
The American auto industry is back in business in a big way. The carmakers are making enormous profits, direct from the blood, sweat and tears of autoworkers.
Monsanto's Harvest of Shame (tags)
GMOs
Rail Disaster in Canada (tags)
The aftermath of the worst rail disaster in Canada for decades leaves at least 47 dead with many of the victims still unaccounted for.
After the removal of Morsi in Egypt (tags)
The removal of the Morsi government is not a victory for the proletariat and the exploited Egyptian masses Victory can only be achieved by the proletarian class struggle against capitalism!
Detroit’s Retired City Workers in the Crosshairs (tags)
With Detroit’s finances looking increasingly dire, the city’s creditors are beginning to face off with one another, each trying to minimize their losses. The city’s pension fund, which supports retired city workers, has found itself in direct conflict with a formidable opponent, the bondholders, individuals and institutions that gave the city money in order to enjoy the interest on the loan.
Milliman Medical Index on Obamacare (tags)
healthcare
Slaughter of Proletarians in Bangladesh: Capitalism is the Assassin! (tags)
On April 24 "Rana Plaza" a 9-storey building in an industrial suburb of Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh (14 million), collapsed on about 3,500 workers (their number is not known precisely) working there. The building contained five textile factories, as well as a bank and many shops. The official present death toll is 1128, the number of injured is unknown. Most of the victims are women, who constitute 80 to 90% of the workforce in the Bangladeshi textile industry.
Local Fights Against Austerity Are Growing Across the U.S. (tags)
Between sequestration, with its damaging impact on workers and the entire economy, and the billions of dollars in cuts to Social Security, Medicare and other necessary social programs that President Obama is pushing, it is evident that the economic policies of both major parties are not intended to promote a recovery for working people. You cannot lift up a nation’s economy while slashing away at its consumers’ pocketbooks. In order to justify their defiance of this elementary law, both Republicans and Democrats start talking the language of “austerity,” that is the notion that economic policy must be guided by reducing budgetary deficits first and foremost, and that workers exclusively must be made to pay the cost.
May Day 2013 Los Angeles (tags)
Themes of Inclusion, Family Unity and Respect Carry the Day. Photo Set 5 of 5
May Day 2013 Los Angeles (tags)
Themes of Inclusion, Family Unity and Respect Carry the Day. Photo Set 4 of 5
May Day 2013 Los Angeles (tags)
Themes of Inclusion, Family Unity and Respect Carry the Day. Photo Set 3 of 5
May Day 2013 Los Angeles (tags)
Themes of Inclusion, Family Unity and Respect Carry the Day. Photo Set 2 of 5
Los Angeles May Day 2013 (tags)
Themes of Inclusion, Family Unity and Respect Carry the Day. Photo Set 1 of 5
Philippines: 25,000 Workers March to Mendiola on Labor Day (tags)
Chiding President Aquino’s pronouncement that Labor Day should be celebratory with both labor and capitalists greeting each other for “doing a good job” for the past year, workers renewed the call for government to create “not just jobs” but “more regular jobs with living wage.”
May Day 2013 National Immigrant Workers Rights March! (tags)
We are calling A national day of multi-ethnic unity with youth, labor, peace and justice communities in solidarity with immigrant workers and building new immigrant rights & civil rights movement! Wear White T-Shirt; organize local actions to support immigrant worker rights!
May Day Workers Film Festival San Diego (tags)
May Day Workers Film Festival runs April 26-28 & May 1 in San Diego... The May Day Workers Film Festival connects labor and social justice issues to audiences through the arts and culture. Expressing labor history and workers struggles as entertainment and education, while supporting social change movements.
Another Dismal Jobs Report (tags)
jobs
Why Don't Politicians Care about the Working Class? (tags)
The national debt is not the most important problem to address. Reversing the polarization of the labor market is much more important.
End the WTO and the Stop the new wave of Free Trade Agreements (tags)
Call to action of the Indonesian People's Movement Against Neocolonialism-Imperialism toward Bali WTO Ministerial meeting on 3-6 of December 2013
Detroit Citizen’s Prepare to Fight Their Corporate Master (tags)
Fresh from shoving his “Right to Work for Less” legislation down the throats of Michigan’s workers, Governor Rick Snyder has grown bolder in pursuing a corporate agenda. He has now appointed Kevyn Orr of Jones Day law firm to act as an Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) of Detroit.
America's Retirement Crisis (tags)
class war
International Women's Day in the Philippines (tags)
Women groups hail ‘triple wins,’ but warn of complacency
Thomas Perez: Obama's Labor Secretary Choice (tags)
labor
Corporate Culture is a Dog and Pony Show (tags)
Every CEO is a little Caesar.
On the Stupidity of being Marrisa (tags)
Yahoo is banning telecommuting.
Strategies Of Containment (tags)
Many of us on the left have been kettled at demonstrations: surrounded by a wall of police, herded into a small area, and prevented from reaching our goal. But we are also kettled by the thought police, and that's even more insidious. This strategy of containment is used politically to confine potentially revolutionary energy into an area where it can't reach its goal. Instead of by cops, we are corralled by institutions that purport to be progressive or even socialist. This pseudo-left diverts our energies away from organizing a militant working class and towards supporting the Democratic Party. Their base is not in the working class but among slightly-left-of-liberal professionals who prefer progressive policies because they will benefit from them. They are well educated and have access to financial and political power. They communicate professionally and persuasively. Like the wall of cops, their message is clear: You must stay here.
PHILIPPINES: Semirara mining disaster - A wake-up call on government to change course (tags)
A change in mining policy and use of coal in power generation must be taken into consideration when government agencies conduct their investigations on the mining disaster that took place off Semirara island in the province of Antique, the labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM - Labor Party) said in a statement.
Why Organized Labor Must Stand Against the Keystone XL Pipeline (tags)
Spurred by real urgency over the corporate driven ruin of the environment, a growing social movement is taking shape that will be on display this Sunday, February 17, when tens of thousands descend on the streets of Washington, D.C. in a show of power titled “Forward On Climate.”
The Argument for Amnesty: An Immigration Policy That Works for All (tags)
Millions experience the repressive nature of the U.S. immigration system on a daily basis, lifting its need for reform to a level of urgency. And fixing this broken program is integral to building the unity among U.S. workers that is required to challenge corporate America’s attacks on our wages, rights, public social services, and living conditions.
Another day, another new initiative to boycott Israel:
Responding to financial crisis: are austerity and suffering inevitable? (tags)
Austerity in a recession is counter-productive. Lower taxes and lower wages mean lower demand, lower GDP, lower state revenue and higher unemployment.
Is The “Democracy Initiative” What We Need? (tags)
Last December, at the National Education Association headquarters in Washington, D.C., leaders from a variety of progressive organizations such as Greenpeace, the NAACP and the Communication Workers of America met with the intention of beginning a national campaign to, in the words of Mother Jones reporter Andy Kroll, “remake American politics.”
U.S. Cannot Tell Iran to Abandon its Nuclear Program (tags)
Interview conducted by Iranian journalist Kourosh Ziabari with Mark Vorpahl
My Encounter with the 'Precarious and Service Workers Assembly' of Occupy Oakland (tags)
It's their party, and they'll cry if they want to...
Longshore Struggle Brews on Both Coasts, Part 2 (tags)
In the Northwest, at the terminals on the Columbia River, Puget Sound, and Portland, Oregon, the membership of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) are on the defensive against the Northwest Grain Handlers Association (NWGHA). The conflict involves nearly 3,000 workers at terminals that handle a quarter of the nation’s grain exports.
Longshore Struggle Brews on Both Coasts (tags)
Part I - It’s a familiar pattern: those on top of the economic ladder enjoy massive profits, while expecting workers to sacrifice even more for the “greater good.”
New York Times Supports Austerity Harshness (tags)
class wa
Why We Defend the ILWU and All Workers (tags)
In recent weeks, a showdown has loomed on U.S. docks between the shipping bosses and port workers that has rattled the capitalist ruling class. On the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, the International Longshoreman's Association prepared to strike container shipping while the employers threatened to lock out 14,500 ILA members. On the West Coast, the grain shippers been demanding a giveback contract from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which would effectively bypass the union hiring hall, slash workers' vital safety protections and gut union power. Yet in the midst of the Northwest grain battle, an Occupy activist Peter Little publishes an article vociferously arguing against the call to defend the ILWU. While posing as ultra-left, this policy if actually carried out would aid the employers who are hell-bent on destroying ILWU union power on the waterfront. And blaming sellouts on the nature of unions lets the bureaucrats off the hook. We in the Internationalist Group say: all those who stand with the exploited and oppressed must come to the defense of the ILWU in this fight. And that defense includes forthrightly opposing the capitulations and betrayals by the labor bureaucracy which sells out vital union gains in the vain hope of an impossible "cooperation" with capital, endangering the workers organizations they preside over.
Philippine Leftists launch election campaign to take on traditional politicians (tags)
At a one-day assembly of more than 500 delegates on November 28, the militant socialist Party of the Laboring Masses (PLM - Partido Lakas ng Masa) introduced its candidates for national elections scheduled for May 13 next year.
PHILIPPINES: Workers party-list group petitions SC to overturn disqualification (tags)
The newly-formed workers party-list Partido ng Manggagawa Coalition (PM Coalition) today filed a petition at the Supreme Court seeking to overturn the Commission on Elections resolution disqualifying the group. In its petition, PM also sought a temporary restraining order on the scheduled raffle of party-list names and printing of the ballots in January.
New issue of The Internationalist is out (tags)
24 pages of revolutionary Trotskyist views you can't get anywhere else, US$0.50. Subscriptions by mail US$10. For copies contact your local Internationalist supporter, call 212-460-0983 (New York City) or 971-282-7903 (Portland, OR), or write to internationalistgroup@msn.com. Send literature requests and payment to Mundial Publications, Box 3321 Church Street Station, New York, NY 10008 USA.
Egypt’s Revolution Stumbles (tags)
The call for a new constitution was a key political demand of the Egyptian people when they overthrew the thirty-year dictatorship of Mubarak. Motivating this was the desire to begin dismantling the repressive bureaucratic state machinery they had suffered under and replace it with a democratic government that would be guided by their needs and hopes. Such aspirations served to unite the divergent forces that made Egypt’s political revolution and encourage their grassroots organizing efforts.
Philippines: Let’s All Work for a Better Party-List System (tags)
Recently, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) concluded its process of scrutinizing groups that will participate in the 2013 partylist election. It marked the end of a long and arduous process that the poll body has undertaken to cleanse the party-list system of fake partylist groups which have used and abused the system to advance their vested interests.
Corporate Tax Breaks and Jobs (tags)
It has become an entrenched trend: corporations approach government officials and demand tax breaks, threatening to abandon the city, state or country if the politicians are not forthcoming.
Defeating “Right to Work” (tags)
The passage in Michigan of the anti-worker legislation grotesquely misnamed “Right to Work” (RTW) should be putting the entire nation on red alert. The downward pressure on the standard of living such bills unleash on the vast majority extend well beyond the union ranks. The bill’s success in Michigan, a pivotal state for organized Labor, indicates the unfolding of a national campaign by RTW’s backers.
Waging War on US Workers (tags)
labor
Paul Krugman Discovers Marx (and Misses the Point) (tags)
In his recent New York Times op-ed piece, Princeton professor and regular columnist for The New York Times, Paul Krugman observed: The American economy is still, by most measures, deeply depressed. But corporate profits are at record high. It’s simple: profits have surged as a share of national income, while wages and other labor compensation are down. The pie isn’t growing the way it should — but capital is doing fine by grabbing an ever-larger slice, at labor’s expense.
Philippine Statements on the International Human Rights Day (tags)
1) Akbayan on the Observance of the International Human Rights Day 2) Workers hold Jericho March at San Miguel in celebration of human rights day 3) Pahayag sa Pandaigdigang Araw ng Karapatang Pantao 4) Another World is Possible! Reject the Policies of Neoliberalism! Protect the Working Class!
Austerity — the 1%’s Global Battle Cry (tags)
Whether we are left with the Fiscal Cliff or a Grand Bargain, workers in the U.S. face massive cuts to programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment insurance, Food Stamp assistance and other needed social safety nets. This is an example of “austerity” which has largely been pursued in the U.S. until now, on a statewide and local level.
Bangladesh Sweatshop Fire (tags)
class war
Will Unions Fight Fiscal Cliff Cuts to Medicare and Social Security? (tags)
With pro-Obama election posters still visible in most union halls across the country, the President has already taken steps towards selling out not only labor unions (again) but all working people. But this isn’t the “ordinary” sellout that working people have come to expect from Democrats — this is an attack of historic proportions.
Philippines: PALEA calls on Ramon Ang to drop charges against members (tags)
The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) today called on new Philippine Airlines (PAL) President Ramon Ang to drop all charges against its members in order to facilitate a solution to the labor row. Last Wednesday a second PALEA member was arrested in Makati City while the first was detained for several days last October in Malvar, Batangas.
Union Loss in Bend, Oregon (tags)
The game is rigged, but not the fight.
Self-directed workers as a “cure for capitalism” (tags)
Employees themselves should make the decisions concerning the business. They can consider a far wider set of issues and concerns about adopting new technology, or any other strategic decision, thereby fully weighing the effects on themselves, their families and their communities.
Michigan’s Proposal 2: Labor’s Big Test (tags)
For some time now, Labor has been punched into a corner when it comes to state legislation. Over the last two years legislation has been passed in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan that has attempted to gut largely public workers of their union rights.
Workers Denounce Destruction of Regular Jobs in Coca-Cola – Philippines (tags)
Manila, Philippines: “Every time you open a bottle of Coca-Cola, please remind the company to respect workers’ rights,” this is the plea made by Coca-Cola union leaders this morning during a press conference. They are asking the patrons of the soft drink giant to support their struggle against employment policies that destroys regular jobs.
Workers Denounce Destruction of Regular Jobs in Coca-Cola – Philippines (tags)
Manila, Philippines: “Every time you open a bottle of Coca-Cola, please remind the company to respect workers’ rights,” this is the plea made by Coca-Cola union leaders this morning during a press conference. They are asking the patrons of the soft drink giant to support their struggle against employment policies that destroys regular jobs.
the way we treat people, should be a clas 1 felony
Workers Stand Up to Walmart (tags)
When a torrent hits an obstacle that refuses to give, it either flows around or over the obstruction. When workers’ needs for a living wage, fair treatment, and a voice are damned up by an oppressive employer, it is only a matter of time before they find a way of asserting their strength.
Why Chavez Won BIG! A Comparison Between the Presidential Elections in the U.S. and Venezu (tags)
U.S. workers and those who are unemployed are frequently told that the current presidential elections are among the most important in this country’s history. With continuing high unemployment and underemployment, declining wages, and looming massive cuts to social programs that help workers, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, we are at a grave point regarding the direction of this country. However, the policies of both presidential candidates and their parties have perpetuated the devastating effects of the Great Recession for workers. Wall Street, the banks, the corporations, and the wealthy have been the beneficiaries of these policies while the only thing workers have received has been more sacrifices.
Airline unions to join PALEA in “Global Day of Action” (tags)
Airline unions are set to join the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) in a “Global Day of Action against Outsourcing” spanning four continents on Thursday. The September 27 action coincides with the anniversary of PALEA’s protest last year that led to the cancellation of all flights of Philippine Airlines and marked the start of a bitter fight over contractualization at the flag carrier.
Wisconsin Anti-Worker Law Struck Down (tags)
class war
Capitulation in Chicago? (tags)
sellout
BREAKING: Warehouse workers on strike in ontario (tags)
Wednesday, september 12, 2012 ONTARIO - warehouse workers striking nfi warehouse in ontario
America's Dismal August Jobs Report (tags)
class war
And The Workers Suffered (tags)
Politics has become so much a show about the candidates. We love a good show, after all the film industry as we know it and Hollywood were born right here in the good old USA. I'm a huge movie person, and the things that remove us from our everyday struggles for a small time, and don't leave us with life destroying addictions and/ or blow apart our bonds with the people we are closest to, are good things. After all, the people that actually do the work that build the wealth and corporations into what they are deserve it.
Labor Radicalism Alive & Well in U.S., Smith Says (tags)
Author and activist Sharon Smith came to San Diego to speak to Occupy San Diego's Labor Solidarity Committee, the International Socialist Organization (ISO) and other community members September 1, but it was her unannounced co-speaker -- a teachers' union activist from Chicago identified only as Becca -- who galvanized the crowd. Smith used the Chicago teachers' union struggle as an example that radical labor activism in the U.S. is alive and well despite decades of repression from the ruling class.
How Unions Could do Better (tags)
Workers Action has a new article on by Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer titled “How Unions Could Do Much Better.”
Assad Resignation first Step to Peace and Democracy in Syria (tags)
Akbayan Party strongly condemns the continued violence and terror perpetrated by Bashar Al-Assad and the Syrian government forces against Syrian citizens who have long demanded democracy and freedom from Assad’s authoritarian leadership. The Assad regime’s aggressive crackdown on pro-democracy forces has emboldened elements within the opposition to respond in a similarly destructive manner and has left Syria in a virtual state of civil war.
Massacre of striking miners in South Africa (tags)
On July 18 the world bourgeoisie celebrated “Mandela Day”, established internationally by the UN in November 2009 under the sign of peace, freedom, reconciliation, etc. In South Africa, more than 12 million children sang hymns to Mandela before going to class, the whole population was called upon to devote 67 minutes of their time (corresponding to 67 years of Mandela’s activism) to helping others. The IMATU Union requested that this day where they celebrate “the 67 years of his life Mandela has given for the rights of humanity, equality, justice and democracy enjoyed today by all South Africans” become a public holiday, so that individuals can give much more than 67 minutes to useful causes....
The Worker's Rug: Fine Art From Day Labor (tags)
The Workers' Rug/La Alfombra Del Trabajador is an art done by day laborers, organizers affiliated with IDEPSCA, artist Katie Bachler and Jade Thacker, and the Craft and Folk Art Museum.
The Capitalism of Hopelessness (tags)
Regulated capitalism reached its peak in the class compromise of the 1960s when representatives of workers could put the screws on the steamroller CEOs a little. The enemy and dynamic are lost to capitalism. Capitalism flows into a society without utopia and alternative.
Injured Workers Sew Lips Shut in Hunger Strike to the Death (tags)
Injured workers from the General Motors Colmotores assembly plant in Bogota, Colombia, after a year occupying the sidewalk in front of the U.S. Embassy, sew their lips shut in hunger strike they are determined to carry out until General Motors Colmotores resolves their situation. They are prepared to give their lives so that workers do not continue to be exploited by multinational corporations in Colombia.
Austerity Hastens Economic Decline (tags)
class war
Out of the Slump: The Only Road (tags)
A real analysis of the United State’s economic history is rarely discussed by politicians or media alike, since the conclusions that would be inevitably drawn would be out of step with what politicians are currently advocating.
Inequalities, Taxes, and More Inequalities (tags)
Thanks to Occupy, most working people are well aware of the growing inequalities in wealth. But for those who lack the specifics, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich provides a useful overview: “…the rich have been getting a larger and larger portion of total income. From 9 percent in 1980, the top 1 percent’s take increased to 23.5 percent by 2007. CEOs who in the 1970s took home 40 times the compensation of average workers now rake in 350 times.” (“Confessions of a Class Warrior,” August 22, 2010).
What's Wrong with San Diego's City Finances? (tags)
The predominantly Queer San Diego Democrats for Equality heard a presentation July 26 from "Paradise Plundered" author Vladimir Kogan. The book, co-written with professors Steven P. Erie and Scott A. MacKenzie, argues that San Diegans have long wanted their city government to do far more in services than they're willing to pay for in taxes -- and recently they and the politicians seeking to lead the city, most notably Right-wing Queer Mayoral front-runner Carl DeMaio, have been scapegoating city workers and their unions for the city's pension crisis and other financial shortfalls.
Taxing the Rich and Its “Left” Critics (tags)
In a recent article published on the website of Socialist Viewpoint, Chris Kinder criticized those on the left who call for raising taxes on the rich. Identifying himself as a Trotskyist, Mr. Kinder displayed particular displeasure with Trotskyists who embrace this demand. Yet, as we will argue, his arguments fundamentally deviate from the political-strategic framework established by Marx and Engels and developed by Lenin and Trotsky.
Houston Janitors Strike for Economic Justice (tags)
Echoing the story of David vs. Goliath, janitors in Houston are on strike and taking on such corporate giants as JPMorganChase and Exxon Mobile in an effort to pressure the janitorial companies they employ to agree to the workers' modest demands. It is these big business behemoths that are the real powers behind cleaning contractors such as ABM, GCA, ISS etc. By striking against these contractors, and publicly targeting these contractors' employers, the janitors are using their collective power in a showdown that has great significance for not only the Labor Movement but all workers.
Philippines: Sorry state of labor presented in pre-SONA forum (tags)
Workers groups today presented the “sorry state of labor” in a forum that served as a buildup activity to the coming counter-SONA protest on Monday. “In his forthcoming SONA (State of the Nation Address), President Benigno Aquino III (P-Noy) will boast of his administration’s so-called inclusive growth. But to workers and the poor, GNP growth only means more ‘Gutom Na Pilipino,’” averred Renato Magtubo, national chair of Partido ng Manggagawa (PM - Labor Party - Philippines).
On Friday, July 6, President Obama signed into law a bill that would renew transportation programs and extend low interest rates on student loans for one year. While this minimal gesture resulted in, no doubt, sighs of relief from those burdened by student debt, tucked away within the bill's pages was a little-noticed proposal to further erode the funding of workers' pensions. The bill was a brilliant sleight of hand where what it appeared to be giving with one hand distracted the public from what it was taking away with the other.
Warehouses, Workers & Wal-Mart (tags)
A group of workers for a warehouse that works exclusively for Wal-Mart invade the management offices with a list of demands that included crazy things like less dangerous conditions, hours that didn’t stretch from way before dark to way after dark, pay that met the legal definition of a wage and an end to global hunger (well, not really the last one—yet!).
Philippine government a "show-off" (tags)
MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine government’s decision to extend a US$1-billion loan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to supplement the Fund’s Financial Transaction Plan (FTP) of $456 billion to contain the economic crisis in Europe is an “arrogant pretension of a country very much in debt,” according to the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC).
A Conversation Worth Having (tags)
The Nation magazine recently held a roundtable blog discussion that debated the effects of the failed Wisconsin recall. The discussion is important because of the seriousness of its subject. Such open and frank conversations have been sadly quite rare, so it is something of a credit to the Nation that they hosted this discussion.
Community Activist Join Labor Against Phony "Trade" Deal (tags)
Progressive San Diego's official opposition to the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — a NAFTA-like agreement seeking to subject the U.S. and a wide range of other countries to corporate dictatorship — began July 2 with a rally outside the Bayfront Hilton Hotel, where the TPP's negotiators are meeting. Speakers from labor, environmental, women's and Queer organizations explained what the TPP means to them and why it should be stopped.
Money, Power, and Politics (tags)
There has been much talk recently about the impact of money on politics, especially in the wake of the Citizens United ruling that has ratcheted up the role of corporate money in political campaigns. Organized labor was quick to blame this ruling for its defeat in Wisconsin. And many have assumed that the relation of money to politics is like a law of nature: the more money one has, the more political power one can wield.
Republicrats Campaign About Jobs and Do Nothing About High Unemployment (tags)
Recently, Mitt Romney made a stop on his “Jobs Tour” in upper Bucks County, Pennsylvania just outside of Philadelphia. His appearance was supposed to be, interestingly, at a local WAWA store (for those out-of-state, WAWA is a convenience store chain) Why is this interesting? Because WAWA, like so many employers these days, is a low wage, no benefit “job creator.”
Ratify and Implement ILO Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers Now! (tags)
Today, as we commemorate the first anniversary of the adoption of ILO Convention 189 (C189) on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, we call on ILO Member States to immediately ratify and implement C189 as a demonstration of their global commitment made at the 100th Session of the International Labour Conference on 16 June 2011.
Olympism Profiteering, Exploitation and Corruption (tags)
fraud
AFL-CIO Declares Victory in Wisconsin in the Face of Defeat (tags)
In the wake of the Wisconsin elections and the failure to unseat Governor Walker, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has issued a victory statement of sorts, resorting to the most tortured and convoluted logic.
Wisconsin's Recall Election (tags)
Wisconsin
San Diego Queer Groups Fight Proposition B (tags)
Queer organizations in San Diego, including Canvass for a Cause (CFAC) and the San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality (S.A.M.E.), are uniting against Proposition B, a "reform" initiative sponsored by openly Gay Right-wing Republican City Councilmember and Mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio that would destroy any hope of retirement security for city workers.
Zenger's Newsmagazine Election Endorsements (tags)
Full endorsements for San Diego voters in the June 5 primary election. As in 2010, in virtually every race Zenger's is recommending every Democrat over every Republican, not because the Democrats (with a few exceptions) are that progressive but because the Republicans are so reactionary they want to abolish the social safety net, virtually eliminate civil rights, workers', consumers' and environmental protections, and transform the U.S.as radically as the Nazis transformed Germany in 1933.
The Left, Labor and Occupy (tags)
Barely half a year after it burst on the scene, the Occupy Wall Street movement is splintering left and right. This was inevitable in a movement that was united only in what it opposed and could never put forward a positive program, whether of reformist "demands" on the capitalist state or of revolutionary action against it. Liberals, who latched onto Occupy hoping it could pressure the Democratic Party in a more populist direction, want to expel "black bloc" anarchists. Reformist social democrats rail against "ultraleftists" in Occupy and cozy up to the labor tops. On the other side, many (but not all) anarchists oppose unions. Some are simply arrogant petty-bourgeois labor haters. Others are grappling with real problems, but with skewed analysis and dead wrong conclusions. Discussion of recent workers' struggles, from Wisconsin to West Coast longshore, underlines that the key question is leadership, but not just replacing one set of bureaucrats with another. Unions have always faced vicious anti-labor laws, but we have the power to defeat them. It is necessary to drive out the pro-capitalist bureaucracy, the labor lieutenants of capital, in order to turn the unions into instruments of revolutionary class struggle.
Arroyo, Philippine military, police face torture raps from 8 of Morong 43 (tags)
MANILA, Philippines - Eight of the 43 health workers collectively known as the Morong 43, who were arrested in February 2010 during a medical training, filed criminal charges against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and several military officials before the Department of Justice.
The Shortwave Report 05/11 Listen Globally! (tags)
A weekly 30 minute review of international news and opinion, recorded from a shortwave radio and the internet. With times, frequencies, and websites for listening at home. 3 files- Highest quality broadcast, regular broadcast, and slow-modem streaming. Spanish National Radio, Radio Havana Cuba, NHK Japan, and Radio Deutsche-Welle.
Presidential Candidate Alexander Defends Public Workforce and the US Postal Service (tags)
The United States Postal Service is looking at turning back services and potentially laying off 80,000 workers due to a manufactured budget shortfall. This manufactured budget shortfall will also result in the closure of 250 mail processing centers and 3,700 post offices, mostly in poor and rural areas. The Socialist Party USA ticket of Stewart Alexander and Alex Mendoza say that this is part of a larger attack upon the working class for the benefit of the wealthiest 1%.
Queer Democrats Unanimously Oppose Pension "Reform" (tags)
The hottest issue on the June 5 ballot in San Diego is Proposition B, the public pension "reform" initiative sponsored by openly Queer Right-wing City Councilmember and Mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio. It would freeze all city workers' pay for five years and abolish the city's pension system for new hires, replacing it with a 401(k)-style plan. The product of a decade-long propaganda campaign by the radical Right politicians and media, it's expected to pass easily — but the predominantly Queer San Diego Democrats for Equality, after hearing a debate on it, unanimously voted to oppose it at their April 26 meeting.
Choice Not on Ballot in French Election (tags)
France
Workers and Immigrants of All Nationalities, Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win (tags)
May Day in LA was another success! Again, 10,000 workers and immigrants of all nationalities led by the May Day Coalition in Los Angeles marched along the downtown LA in unity against oppressive capital and the 1% that kept them exploited and oppressed through the years. Despite the troubled winds, besides all the other marches, the workers movement remained united. This is the second year that the workers marched under one banner. All despite the machinations of other groups to divide and disperse the movement.
Workers of All Nationalities, Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win (tags)
May Day in LA was another success! Again, workers of all nationalities led by the May Day Coalition in Los Angeles marched along the downtown LA in unity against oppressive capital and the 1% that kept them exploited and oppressed through the years. ... Despite the troubled winds, besides all the other marches, the workers movement remained united. This is the second year that the workers marched under one banner. All despite the machinations of other groups to divide and disperse the movement. The May Day Coalition led the LA march. It militantly demonstrated maturity and force by demanding legalization and fighting back. During the 2006 immigrant rights upsurge, when the ruling class forbid the flying of national flags to demonstrate chauvinist adherence to the war against the Iraqi people and other nations, workers of different nationalities proudly flew their flags in unity and struggle. The Alliance is proud to march with all oppressed workers of all nationalities in multi-ethnic Los Angeles on May Day.
May Day Protests for Justice (tags)
May Day
PHILIPPINES: Sentro, Nagkaisa herald new era of labor unity (tags)
THOUSANDS of trade unionists and activists poured into the streets of Manila and other key cities to celebrate May Day amid renewed hopes that the two latest efforts at labor unity will provide strong impetus to their uphill battle for labor and trade union rights.
Philippine unions support campaign of workers in Hyatt hotels in US (tags)
TRADE unions and other organizations picketed today the Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila in the Malate area to air their support to the global campaign to boycott the Hyatt chain of hotels prompted by the rampant abuses against the workers in several Hyatt hotels in the US, even as they recall the almost similar plight suffered by the workers in the shuttered Hyatt Regency Manila.
LA, let's bring up our media game!
BTL:Farm Workers Union Co-Founder: Together Progressive Activists can Advance Social Justi (tags)
Excerpt of speech by Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, recorded and produced by Melinda Tuhus
New issue of The Internationalist is out! (tags)
Special for May Day 2012.
Filipino workers band together for a stronger labor front (tags)
SENTRO vows to fight for wages, secure jobs and other long-standing issues
Un-Millionaire Presidential Campaign House Party (tags)
Durham, a Harlem based workers’ rights advocate, internationalist, and gay liberation pioneer, is on tour in advance of California’s June 5 primary where he is on the Peace and Freedom party ballot.
Philippines: Promotion of Morong 43 jailer enrages victims, rights groups (tags)
MANILA – The recent promotion of Major General Jorge Segovia, former commander of the 2nd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army that carried out the illegal arrest of 43 health workers in February 2010, has outraged human rights groups.
Philippine Labor party calls for removal of VAT on oil to reduce prices (tags)
One day after the transport protest against the unabated increases in oil prices, the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) called on the administration of President Benigno Aquino III to remove the VAT on oil products as an immediate measure to reduce prices.
Occupy the Machine: An Escalating Campaign Against Fossil Fuel Extraction Begins In April (tags)
A festival of resistance and alternatives to the fossil fuel economy, in the shadow of the Houston Valero refinery, culminating in a refinery blockade.
May Day 2012: National Mobilization For Immigrant Workers Rights! (tags)
We are calling A national day of multi-ethnic unity with youth, labor, peace and justice communities in solidarity with immigrant workers and building new immigrant rights & civil rights movement! Wear White T-Shirt; organize local actions to support immigrant worker rights!
F29 Walmart Warehouse Shutdown: Victory at Dawn (tags)
Wednesday, February 29, 2011
EASTVALE, California - Nearly 300 people arrived at six in the morning in this desolate inland city with the intent to shut down the world's largest distribution center for Walmart goods. Activists from Occupy Riverside, Occupy LA, other Southern California occupys, community activists, and student groups arrived at the Schneider warehouse only to find that the management had closed the facility of its own accord. Having tasted victory at dawn, the group soon set its sights much higher.
America's Sham Economic Recovery (tags)
class war
From Protest Camp to General Strike (tags)
Something crucial happened in the US in 2011. The strengthening of the Occupy movement, first on Wall Street and then in hundreds of American cities, is celebrated as the revival of the revolutionary middle class. The movement in the US seems two steps ahead.
Resolution in Support of Warehouse Workers at Walmart Contractor Schneider Logistics (tags)
This resolution was adopted by the Inland Empire General Strike Committee on January 27, 2012, and was amended on February 6, 2012. It was subsequently adopted by Occupy Redlands. We encourage all other local occupys, as well as all labor unions, student groups, community organizations, congregations, homeowner associations, and any other free associations to adopt this resolution and find other ways to support this action.
Construction workers picket new gym in Upland (tags)
Monday, February 6, 2012
UPLAND (CA) - Carpenters set up a picket line this morning in front of what is soon to become a Crunch gymnasium. Workers upset about a subcontractor's paying of substandard wages to drywallers set up the picket in protest.
Egypt amidst bloody military repression, Islamist reaction and workers’ struggles (tags)
After the killings at the soccer match on February 1 at Port Said (74 deaths, mainly among supporters of the Al-Ahly club of Cairo), the “ultras”, supporters of the teams from the capital whom, throughout the events of last year had fought many times the forces of repression, have accused the SCAF of premeditated killing
F29 SHUTDOWN THE CORPORATIONS CALL TO ACTION: Occupy Walmart! (tags)
Join Occupy Riverside, Redlands, San Bernardino Valley, Los Angeles and other Occupy groups in the region for the mass participatory direct action targeting Walmart's largest warehouse and distribution center. NO BUSINESS AS USUAL!
Wisconsinites v. Governor Scott Walker (tags)
class war
Mitt Romney's Hard-Right Agenda (tags)
class war
Obama's Transfer Of The Public's Equity To The 1% (tags)
So they steal your house and will now rent it back to you at outrageous artificially inflated rent while still taking 50% of your deflated income to earn a profit margin off what used to be your equity.
Repeal NAFTA/WTO is Ron Paul’s Answer to Undocumented Immigration & Domestic Job Losse (tags)
Part of promoting non-interventionist foreign policy is allowing for foreign nations to have self-determination and autonomy in their own economy. The greatest limiting factor to achieving democracy and self-determination in any nation is an unstable economy caused by unequal trade laws. This inequality between trade partners can occur because of different resource qualities or quantities or as a result of trade agreements that benefit one nation above another.
Longshore Workers, Truckers: Shut the Ports, Coast to Coast! (tags)
Following the nationally-coordinated police evictions last month of Occupy Wall Street and encampments across the country, on December 12 the Occupiers struck back. Ports up and down the West Coast were blockaded, from Seattle to San Diego. Despite a barrage of hostile propaganda in the media, opposition from union bureaucrats and heavy police repression in some places, overall the blockade was successful -- this time. The blockade was called in solidarity with longshore workers fighting a union-busting assault in Longview, Washington and port truckers seeking union recognition in the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach. This support should have been greeted. But now the class war on the West Coast docks is coming to a head, and it can't be waged from the outside. Bay Area labor has called for a caravan to Longview. The goal should be a real occupation of the terminal by the workers to prevent the loading of the scab cargo. Longshore militants have called on the longshore unions to shut down every port on the West Coast, and the East and Gulf Coasts, to smash EGT's union-busting. Can it be done? Yes, but only though sharp struggle against the pro-capitalist labor bureaucracy.
San Antonio sugar mill maintains historic tradition of commitment with its collaborators (tags)
Some prestigious mass media have recently informed about the situation of public health faced by agricultural workers affected by Chronic Renal Insufficiency (CRI) in Central America´s Pacific region, a problem that worries society in general. Unfortunately, in light of the uncertain origin of the disease, sometimes inaccuracies are incurred in the search for culprits and not solutions.
Filipino Militant groups commemorate Bonifacio Day with mass protest (tags)
MANILA, Philippines—Various militant groups from the labor sector commemorated the 148th birth anniversary of Philippine national hero and revolutionary Andres Bonifacio Wednesday with mass protest action at the historic Don Chino Roces (formerly Mendiola) Bridge.
Election 2012: Unemployment Drop a Sham According to Socialist Party Ticket (tags)
The Alexander/Mendoza campaign calls for a real jobs program, as well as protecting public sector jobs which have been faltering since the economic crisis began. They say that spending billions of dollars on incentives for businesses doesn’t get the job done – rather they call for the government to create jobs directly.
Lessons learned from Occupy L.A.
PALEA member in Los Angeles cry harassment by PAL, PM-USA vows support (tags)
A member of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) is crying harassment by Philippine Airlines (PAL) for being refused boarding on a flight back to Manila from Los Angeles. Belle Savellano, PALEA members and PAL employee for 28 years, was not allowed to board the PAL LAX-MNL flight last November 6 for being allegedly on “blacklist of PALEA members.”
Fil-Am groups call for boycott as PAL refuses to fly PALEA member and family (tags)
Representatives from Partido ng Manggagawa-USA (Labor Party) and Filipino-American groups BANTAY Pilipinas-Los Angeles, Alliance Philippines and Echo Park Community Coalition called on the public especially Filipino-Americans to boycott Philippine Airlines (PAL) as the groups condemned the harassment tactics of the company against members of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA). Last November 6 (US time), PAL refused to board a PALEA member and her family despite holding tickets for the Los Angeles-Manila flight because she was supposedly on “blacklist of PALEA members.”
U.S Election 2012: Alexander and Mendoza Gives Perspective on US Jobs Situation (tags)
“We aren’t making economic progress,” says Stewart Alexander, Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party USA, “we are simply going through a long term process of replacing poorly paying jobs with even worse jobs while corporate profits soar. The only ‘change’ Obama has given us jingles in our pockets.”
Labor Rallies in Support of Occupy San Diego Oct. 28 (tags)
Despite a pre-dawn police raid on both Occupy San Diego sites — the Civic Center Plaza near City Hall and the Children's Park across from the Convention Center — a rally sponsored by organized labor in support of the occupation went ahead as scheduled October 28. At this time, the occupiers are still there.
General Strike: Where Ows Needs To Go (tags)
....we are unlikely to see major policy or infrastructure changes until our new movement hits the 1% where it really hurts -- in their pocketbook..... This is where #OccupyWallStreet differs significantly from the major uprisings in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, where mass demonstrations were accompanied by general strikes that shut down economic activity. In Egypt, it was the unions' threat to shut down the Suez Canal that ultimately forced Mubarak to step down.
Philippines: PALEA holds motorcade on the 30th day of its protest vs. outsourcing (tags)
Also in commemoration of PALEA’s 30th day of protest against contractualization, solidarity actions were held in San Francisco and Los Angeles by US unions and the Filipino-American community. In San Francisco, the groups picketed the Philippine consulate and PAL ticketing office, and submitted a letter of concern to Deputy Consul General Alfonso Ver.
The San Diego Mayoral Candidates That Didn't Bark (tags)
When A Better San Diego, a coalition made up largely of labor unions and their affiliates, sponsored a debate among the four leading candidates for Mayor of San Diego in next year's election, only two showed up. The no-shows were City Councilmember Carl DeMaio, whose whole campaign is based on targeting city workers as the source of San Diego's economic woes, and District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, both Republicans. A third Republican, Assemblymember Nathan Fletcher, and Democratic Congressmember Bob Filner attended and differed on city workers' pensions, outsourcing city jobs to private companies and many other issues.
Reflections on Occupy LA, Wall St. and Bel air (tags)
Reposted from facebook
Occupy Wall Street: Protesters arrested 900--Bankers 0. We are the 1% (tags)
The Labor hierarchy is concerned about the influence the Occupy movement might have on the Unions' rank and file and will enter the Occupy movement in order to temper it, derail it and send it in to the Democratic Party as they did with the Madison events. The Occupy movement should beware the hierarchy and Labor's "official" representatives and welcome the rank and file worker.
We Pay for Their Crisis (tags)
Making a game sound appealing whose frauds are obvious is increasingly hard for the governments. The neoliberal vision was always a society of the asocial. The categorical imperative of neoliberalism was always an open and cynical attack on the working class.
Philippine Airline workers intensify protest actions (tags)
The Philippine Airlines Employees? Association (PALEA) today asserted that Philippine Airlines (PAL) President Jaime Bautista?s announcement that they no longer acknowledge Gerry Rivera and Bong Palad as union officers exposes union busting as the real aim of outsourcing. ?Truly a fish is caught by its mouth. Actually PAL is not just recognizing me and Palad as union officers but 62% of PALEA?s leadership and 70% of its membership who have been illegally lockout and terminated. Outsourcing thus is tantamount to union busting,? stated Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of Partido ng Manggagawa (PM - Labor Party).
Downtown Labor Day Rally Draws Over 200 (tags)
MoveOn.org's San Diego chapter and other local activists hosted a Labor Day rally outside Horton Plaza in downtown San Diego Monday, September 5, featuring speakers like Congressmembers Bob Filner and Susan Davis, San Diego-Imperial Counties Central Labor Council secretary-treasurer Lorena Gonzalez, State Senator Juan Vargas, State Assemblymember Lori Salda?a, former City Councilmember Floyd Morrow and Activist San Diego president Jeeni Criscenzo. Much of the action urged solidarity with the supermarket workers threatened by their employers' demands for a takeaway contract and the likelihood of a strike. While most of the speakers said, "Jobs, jobs, jobs," Criscenzo urged listeners to take another look at the whole concept of a "job" and question why the only way we should be allowed to make a living is to beg a rich person or corporation for the chance to make them richer.
Supermarket Strike is Looming (tags)
The UFCW announced that they cancelled their contract, and are giving 72 hours notice that they may strike.
Anti-Israeli Rage in Egypt (tags)
Israel
Hotel Workers Use Labor Day to Press Boycott of Hyatt Regency Santa Clara (tags)
Hotel service workers of the union Unite Here! Local 19 marked Labor Day by picketed the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara, which has been the target of a boycott campaign launched by the union six months ago. Hyatt workers, who have been without a contract with the hotel, have been demanding recognition of the union through a card-check / neutrality agreement.
economy
Productivity is For Chumps: Don't Take a Piss Without Getting Paid (tags)
If you remember just one thing this Labor Day it should be this: Don't take a piss without getting paid for it. Larry Ellison gets paid for every dribble, every excretion, why should you be any different?
Campaign for the Just Treatment of International Corps of Educators (tags)
Over the past decade, the United States saw a growing shortage of teachers especially in inner-city and remote rural schools. This shortage was further compounded with the increased need for highly-qualified teachers as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 mainly in core areas such as math, science and special education. In response to this shortage, school districts all over the country looked around the globe to recruit experienced and credentialed teachers to assist the country in educating its children. This was answered more than willingly by thousands of foreign teachers annually.
Strikes, riots, revolutions. This is the shape of the new Class War.
economy
PHILIPPINES: Absent major policy reforms, there will be no social transformation (tags)
President Aquino?s communication advisers said the President?s second State of the Nation Address (SONA) will focus more on ?social transformation?. What would that mean in real sense, however, largely depend on how Filipinos would view their lives today and in the immediate future. And for the Filipino masses who have been used to hearing nice words from their leaders, this new buzzword assumes no meaning at all unless accompanied by major policy reforms.
US-Style Free Trade's Dark Side (tags)
exploitation
Rahm Emanuel: Chicago's War Criminal/Anti-Labor Mayor (tags)
anti-labor
Statement On the Plight of Filipino Teachers of Maryland?s PGCPS (tags)
Lured by the American dream, non-immigrant workers here in the US have been subjected to different forms of exploitation, manipulation and abuse. The complexities of the recruitment process are being taken advantage of by placement agencies and sometimes with the collaboration of representatives of US employers. Oftentimes foreign workers leave their country deep in debt in raising money needed to cover for exorbitant placement and other fees.
Striking for Health Care (tags)
The supermarket workers in So Cal have gone over three months without agreeing on a new contract. The fight is mostly over health care benefits; if they lose, all workers in retail will see benefits decline.
The Labor Movement in Portland, Oregon, Takes a Step Forward (tags)
On only the second sunny weekend of the year in Portland, Oregon, 60 plus labor activists decided to spend their Saturday at the Electricians union hall (IBEW Local 48), at the United Labor Strategy Meeting ? an event unlike any other happening in the country. What made the meeting unique was both its perspective and the diversity of unions that participated.
Workers Party challenges Philippine President to protect labor rights at Hanjin (tags)
The militant labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) challenged President Benigno Aquino III (PNoy) to uphold and protect workers rights at the giant Hanjin shipyard in Subic, Zambales as complaints mounted of violations of labor and safety standards. Dozens of members of PM and the Philippine Airlines Employees? Association (PALEA) joined the Church-Labor Conference, an alliance of labor and religious organizations that is co-chaired by Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, in a rally this morning at Mendiola in Manila.
BTL:Wal-Mart Wins, Workers Lose in U.S. Supreme Court Decision Rejecting Class Action Disc (tags)
Interview with Chris Owens, attorney and executive director of the National Employment Law Project, conducted by Scott Harris
Spanish Voters Reject Austerity (tags)
financial terrorism
On the Chopping Block: Federal Worker Pensions (tags)
fascism
Illegal Labor on the Farm Produces Big Profits for Agribusiness (tags)
NAFTA induced illegal immigration is providing agribusiness corporations with incredible profits, while legal workers and consumers reap few rewards. At some point people need to face the reality that the U.S. must withdraw from and repeal NAFTA!
PHILIPPINES: Employers win again: P22 COLA too little, too late (tags)
?If the objective is to increase the capacity of workers and their families to weather economic woes, an increase of P22 a day at this point is simply too little, too late,? Akbayan Representative Walden Bello said on Tuesday morning following the announcement of a P22-increase in minimum wage earners? cost of living allowance (COLA).
May Day March in S. F. 2011 (tags)
Video of May Day march in S. F. 2011
Human Trafficking in Israel (tags)
exploitation
Phantom Jobs and Economic Recovery in America (tags)
fake recovery
San Diego Hosts Three May Day Rallies (tags)
San Diego hosted no fewer than three rallies on Sunday, May 1 — one between the Centro Cultural de la Raza and World Beat Center in Balboa Park, followed by a march to the Federal Building downtown where the second rally was held, and a third at the San Diego Community Concourse that united the participants with another set of marchers, who had assembled earlier in the morning in Chicano Park, also for a walk downtown. The rally speakers focused on a wide variety of progressive issues — workers’ rights, education cutbacks, health care, immigrants’ rights, war and peace, Queer liberation — and attempted to draw connections between them and psych the participants for the long struggle ahead to preserve and extend those rights in the face of a relentless assault on them by the radical Right.
We Want a 4 Day Work Week! (tags)
The time has come for the 4 day work week.
March on May 1 for Immigration Reform! (tags)
March with L.A. Labor for Immigration Reform on May 1! May Day Thousands of LA workers will march side-by-side with immigrant workers this Sunday in downtown Los Angeles to demand national immigration reform, to stop deportations and separations of families, and to support all workers’ rights.
ALL OUT ON MAY 1st in LA, FIGHT FOR IMMIGRANT RIGHTS (tags)
Immigrants all of nationalities under attack, what should we do? Rise up, Fight Back! The Echo Park Community Coalition (EPCC) is calling all immigrants and their advocates in Los Angeles to mobilize and hit the streets of LA on May 1. For the EPCC --May 1, International Workers' Day, marks the fifth anniversary of the historic nationwide immigrant workers’ strike. On that day, millions upon millions of immigrant workers—documented and undocumented—flooded the streets of Los Angeles with millions of their supporters also in small towns and large cities demanding respect for all workers.
The History of May Day, Made in the USA (tags)
Leftist activists know about the eight men who were arrested and tried and convicted for terrorism related to Haymarket Square in Chicago. The bombing happened at a rally on the 4th, but it was due to events on May Day, when the city of Chicago went on strike.
May Day 2011 Call to Action! (tags)
We are calling A national day of multi-ethnic unity with youth, labor, peace and justice communities in solidarity with immigrant workers and building new immigrant rights & civil rights movement! Wear White T-Shirt; organize local actions to support immigrant worker rights!
Republicans Win Without a Shutdown (tags)
The first fight over the federal budget in 2011 is over, and the Republicans have won. For at least the past 30 years Republican ideas — that government is bad, that the private sector is always more efficient than the public sector, that wages and benefits need to be cut to make America's workers "competitive" with the rest of the world, and government spending needs to be cut even if it risks turning the current recession into a full-fledged depression — have ruled. Progressives need to understand the depth of the Republicans’ triumph in order to begin the task of reversing it.
Arab Spring Yet to Bloom (tags)
democracy
The Japanese Nuke Biz: Thugs and Lies (tags)
The NYT published an "atomic bomb" of an article about the corrupt system of nuclear power plant operations. This needs to go viral. We must resist and stop unsafe nuclear power.
MOTHERS MARCH FOR EVERYONE’S SURVIVAL (tags)
Marking the100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day, the 2nd Annual Mothers March For Everyone’s Survival End Budget Cuts, Poverty, Discrimination, War & Other Violence, took place on Saturday, March 12, in Los Angeles.
Video: Thousands Across US Rally in Support of Workers' Rights (tags)
In hundreds of cities, thousands rally to show support for public sector workers.
PHILIPPINES: Our Failed Labor-Export Policy (tags)
The impacts of disasters occurring in other parts of the world, from Libya to Japan, have perhaps been communicated more drastically to the Philippines than to other countries. Whether it is the tragic trilogy of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear fallout in Japan or the civil war in Libya, external crises are swiftly transformed into internal crises for our country, as thousands of families are pushed into poverty and economic hardship when their breadwinners are dislocated and repatriated back to the Philippines, where jobs offering decent wages are scarce.
Philippine Airlines workers vote to strike (tags)
The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) held a torch parade tonight as initial results in the strike poll reveal a tremendous vote for yes. Only the ballots of PALEA members in the Metro Manila offices of Philippines Airlines have been counted and show 96% votes of for a strike and a mere 3% voted against. In the last strike vote conducted last December, some 86% voted yes. In yesterday’s voting, 1996 PALEA members in Metro Manila participated out of some 2987 total members.
Downtown March for Workers' Rights (tags)
Saturday, March 26, 2011
LOS ANGELES - Approximately 20,000 marchers demonstrated their support for unions and the right to collectively bargain.
Workers of Los Angeles Unite (Photos from 3/26/11) (tags)
Workers took to the streets of Los Angeles on Saturday, March 26 to protest the ongoing assault on the working class and to express solidarity with protesters in Wisconsin. They marched from the Convention Center to Pershing Square where a rally took place.
No to imperialist military intervention in Libya! (tags)
Since Saturday, March 19, a US-led military coalition, including, besides English and French Forces, participation by Canadian, Italian, Spanish, and other countries, commenced the bombardment of military installations and concentrations of troops loyal to the Gaddafi government. The stated purpose of this military intervention which has been endorsed by the Security Council of the UN and the Arab League, is to get government forces off the offensive against the rebels, in order to avoid a “massacre of the civilian population”.
Public Workers’ Struggle Is Our Struggle (tags)
Though it ended in a setback when the Republican majority in the Wisconsin state legislature used legally dubious tactics to ram the bill through anyway, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s plan to strip his state’s public workers of the right to form unions and bargain collectively has engendered nationwide resistance from America’s increasingly embattled working class. Tens of thousands of people from Wisconsin and elsewhere flooded Madison, the state capital, and occupied the capitol building to protest Walker’s policies, and the Democrats in the Wisconsin State Senate left the state for three weeks to deny Walker and the Republicans the votes they needed to eviscerate the state’s union movement. America’s working and middle classes need to stand strong and fight back in the face of these efforts by the corporate and radical Right to deny the non-rich any voice whatsoever in America’s politics.
Brazil welcomes Obama with 13 political prisoners (tags)
The arrival of Barack Obama in Brazil was marked by the illegal (and political) arrest of 13 Brazilian citizens who were protesting against the presence of the North American president in the country.
Costa Mesa Employee Commits Suicide at City Hall (tags)
OC Voice reports that a just-laid-off worker has commited suicde.
ILPS joins the celebration of the Centennial of the First International Toiling Womens Day (tags)
We, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, express our most militant greetings to women all over the world and join you in the celebration of the centennial of the International Women’s Day. The history and current trend of militant women’s struggle must be highlighted in the midst of the global depression and chaos that pervade the various regions of the world today.
Wisconsin: For a General Strike Now! (tags)
A law challenging the very existence unions of government workers has just been rammed through the legislature in Wisconsin. In addition, wages have been slashed by up to 10 percent to make up for cuts to health insurance and pensions. The labor movement and workers nationwide and internationally are vividly aware of the stakes. There has been a lot of talk in the last three weeks about a general strike. The Wisconsin South Central Labor Federation even voted to authorize one. But now that the moment of truth has arrived, the union bureaucrats have gotten cold feet. They are doing everything to prevent strike action and instead to divert anger at this vicious law into a drive to recall Republican senators, to be replaced by Democrats, whose “alternative” budget bill would also have drastically slashed wages and benefits. There should be no delay: this is the hour for powerful labor action. A general strike is needed to shut down Wisconsin now!
Inland Empire Solidarity with Libya and Wisconsin (tags)
Saturday, March 12, 2011
POMONA, California - With shouts of "Down with dictatorship!" and "The union's under attack! What do we do? Stand up, fight back!" a group composed primarily of local youth sent a strong statement of solidarity with the people of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as with union workers in Wisconsin and elsewhere at the corner of Mission and Garey.
Promises, Promises: Obama Rebuffs Invites to Stand with [Wisconsin] Workers (tags)
Send Obama and the Democrats a message and change your voter registration status to "Green Party" or "Peace & Freedom"! (Last years' Prop. 14 eliminated partisan primary elections, so there's really isn't any reason left to be a registered Democrat). Postage-paid voter registration cards are available at most libraries and post offices -- fill out one today!
Battleground Wisconsin: Corporate Power v. Worker Rights (tags)
worker struggles
Down with Gaddafi! No to US-NATO intervention! (tags)
"In this time when events seem to be moving so fast, we must maintain focus on the essential meaning and purpose of imperialist efforts. Elites in Washington and other capitals of the west are desperate and working with full dedication to "roll back" the popular advances being made in the Mideast and across North Africa. This article is offered in the effort to support a progressive analysis while the mainstream media works triple time to confuse and obfuscate an understanding of the "full on class war" unfolding before us. No to the budget cuts. No to intervention in Libya. Organize to stand up and fight wall street and the banksters, and ther're "agents" in media and government. Organize in your communities and beyond quickly now. "You have a world to win and only your chains to lose."
Wisconsin Democrats Plan Capitulation (tags)
worker struggles
Waging War on Working Americans (tags)
labor struggles
Filipino Workers criticize shortcomings of EDSA 1 (tags)
The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and the anti-contractualization coalition KONTRA slammed the shortcomings of EDSA 1 in a symbolic mass action this afternoon. Scores of workers from PM and KONTRA assembled at the Ninoy Aquino monument at the corner of Timog and Quezon Avenues at around 5:30 pm.
Reactionary Extremism in Wisconsin and Ohio (tags)
worker struggles
Spreading Activism for Change (tags)
worker struggles
Over 1,000 Turn Out in San Diego to Support Wisconsin Workers (tags)
Over 1,000 people turned out for a rally outside the San Diego County Administrative Center February 26 at noon to support Wisconsin's unionized public workers against the threat by Governor Scott Walker and the Republican majority in the state legislature to pass a bill essentially eliminating the right of the state's public employees to unionize and bargain collectively. A wide range of speakers, including union activists, community leaders and elected officials, said that if Walker's bill and similar ones in other states pass, it will essentially mark the end of the American middle class. The rally was part of a nationwide mobilization, and many of those who braved the cold and the rain to attend mentioned that the protesters in Wisconsin itself are sleeping out in the cold and snow in weather far worse than that in San Diego.
Wisconsin's Spirit: Courage for Other States to Emulate (tags)
worker struggles
Union Busting in America (tags)
worker struggles
Wisconsin: Ground Zero to Save Public Worker Rights (tags)
worker struggles
Live Reporting from the Wisconsin Protests (tags)
Madison, Wisconsin IMC is offline right now- however there are other NONCORPORATE places to go for breaking news from Wisconsin-
The following is an editorial written for the March 2011 issue of Zenger’s Newsmagazine before the uproar in Wisconsin over the bill introduced by that state’s governor, Scott Walker, which would essentially destroy public-sector unionism in that state and therefore likely be the final nail in the coffin of America’s labor movement as a whole. People — not just union workers directly affected by the proposal but others as well — have turned out in the streets and blockaded the state capitol, while “Tea Party” counter-protesters have been mobilized nationwide by talk radio and Fox News to come and support the governor. The Wisconsin protests have been compared to those that recently brought down Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak — though America’s corporate media have carefully avoided that analogy — but despite the uproar over Walker’s bill, America’s white working class has so far remained largely opposed to the progressive agenda and supportive of radical-Right attempts to destroy what’s left of America’s social safety net.
Right-Wing Queer Councilmember DeMaio Dominates San Diego Economic Debate (tags)
Openly Queer Right-wing San Diego City Councilmember Carl DeMaio dominated a forum on the city’s budget woes sponsored by the Hillcrest Town Council February 5. Three other panelists spoke ¬— former San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre, who stunned his supporters in the progressive community by joining DeMaio in campaigning against a proposed city sales tax increase last fall; former City Councilmember Michael Zucchet, a lobbyist for the city workers’ main union; and economics professor Alan Gin — but DeMaio and his proposed “Roadmap for Recovery,” a plan to balance the city’s budget by privatizing city jobs, slashing pensions and reducing supposedly “nonessential” city services, was the basis for the discussion and provided the context to which the other three panelists responded.
Proposed California budget slashes education (tags)
Amid looming budget deficits, school districts across California are preparing to fire teachers, close schools, cut programs, and increase class sizes, to cover reduced state funding. Like Democratic and Republican governors across the country, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown is trying to force workers to pay for the economic crisis, while corporations make record profits. Within the state the richest Californian, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, has a net worth of $27 billion, more than the entire state deficit.
Tea Party Stooges Join Wisconsin Protests (tags)
worker struggles
Business in Crisis: Vulnerable to Attack (tags)
Sectarian leftists love to moan about the power of capitalism. It seems it cannot be upended or even reformed. Activists are hooked on hopelessness. Is it any wonder why activists are caught blindsided by events like Tunisia, Egypt, and Wisconsin? These recent actions are manifestations of resistance against the presumed neoliberal order.
Wisconsin Labor Leads 2d American Revolution (tags)
One year ago, on March 4, California students and teachers had a one-day strike for education, but nothing has improved because we did not have a general strike. Today, Wisconsin workers are striking and protesting the planned Democrat-Republican attack on the workingclass so as to maximize the profits of the capitalist class. The whole country should join this 2d American Revolution with all deliberate speed.
US Workers: Resurgent or Waging a Rearguard Action? (tags)
worker rights
Egypt's Spirit Lands in Wisconsin (tags)
protest
Middle East Protests, Violence and Strikes Continue (tags)
liberating struggles
Resources for the Unemployed (tags)
Some sad news about the Unemployed Friends forum, and some good news about more organizing online to fight for extensions. Additional links to survival resources.
Middle East Protests Continue (tags)
liberating struggles
Strikes, workers’ protests spread throughout Egypt (tags)
“According to a detailed account published by Al Ahram, the dictator had intended to step down but was persuaded by his wife and son Gamal not to. When this threatened to provoke a further upsurge in the revolutionary movement, the military stepped in and seized power to try to maintain control over the situation. Notably, none of the official middle class “opposition” parties—including the Muslim Brotherhood and Mohamed ElBaradei’s National Association for Change—has condemned the military’s threats against the working class. Striving to maintain illusions in the role of the army, these forces have urged an end to the demonstrations and strikes. ElBaradei and his colleagues are now preparing to enter the military regime. Britain’s Foreign Minister William Hague said yesterday that Egypt’s Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq told him that the current government would be reshuffled to include opposition figures by next week. While the successful elevation of these “opposition” forces would open up opportunities for the individuals involved, for the Egyptian working class it would signify no more than providing a civilian fig-leaf for the military government.”
The Two Roads Out of Recession (tags)
Recent events in Washington, D.C. should provoke fear and outrage in the average American worker. As the jobs recession staggers on, politicians and labor leaders alike seem bizarrely distanced from reality, unable to advance any ideas that remotely correspond to the basic demands of those tens of millions of unemployed, under-employed, or poorly paid workers. Instead, what we get is President Obama's recent groveling to the corporate-dominated Chamber of Commerce, pleading with them to hire workers. The President's recent speech to the Chamber implied many dangers, which neither labor federation-- AFL-CIO and Change to Win -- bothered to point out. In fact, the AFL-CIO applauded sections of the speech, rather than condemning its sinister motives. If labor unions align themselves with the President's and the Chamber's pro-corporate path out of the recession, a workers’ road to recovery will be bypassed.
'The Egyptian Revolution enters a new stage' and more (tags)
"The struggle that is now unfolding in Egypt will be of a protracted character. The responsibility of revolutionary Marxists is to develop among workers, as they pass through colossal political experiences, an understanding of the necessity for an independent struggle for power. The revolutionary Marxists must counsel workers against all illusions that their democratic aspirations can be achieved under the aegis of bourgeois parties. They must expose ruthlessly the false promises of the political representatives of the capitalist class. They must encourage the creation of independent organs of workers’ power which can become, as the political struggle intensifies, the basis for the transfer of power to the working class. They must explain that the realization of the workers’ essential democratic demands is inseparable from the implementation of socialist policies. Above all, revolutionary Marxists must raise the political horizons of Egyptian workers beyond the borders of their own country. They must explain that the struggles that are now unfolding in Egypt are inextricably linked to an emerging global process of world socialist revolution, and that the victory of the revolution in Egypt requires not a national, but an international strategy. After all, the fight against the Mubarak-Suleiman regime and the Egyptian ruling class is, in the final analysis, a struggle against the entire Arab bourgeoisie, the Zionist regime in Israel and American and European imperialism."
Egypt: Revolution in Motion (tags)
"A revolution is not a single event-it is a process. A process with ebbs and flows, advances and setbacks that can take place over weeks, months and even years..The Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky developed the theory of `permanent revolution.'" Links to Howard Zinn and Marcos
Essentials on the situation in Egyp (tags)
"Then, over the weekend, came the public statement by Frank Wisner, the former ambassador to Cairo tapped by the Obama administration to serve as its envoy to Mubarak. Speaking at a security conference in Munich, Wisner declared, “President Mubarak remains utterly critical in the days ahead as we sort our way toward the future.” He added that the dictator “must stay in office in order to steer those changes through.” The State Department immediately responded that Wisner was speaking in a personal capacity and had not cleared his remarks first with the US government. While mortified that Wisner had the audacity to say publicly what the administration—behind all its phony rhetoric about democracy—is actually doing, no one disputed the content of Wisner’s statement. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs found a somewhat more elegant way to echo Wisner’s view, declaring that the issue was one of “process not personality.”
El Salvador's Sweatshop Economy (tags)
sweatshops
Jerry Brown, capitalists front man in their offensive against workers and the poor (tags)
Jerry Brown's speech. He wants to re-build California. Then let's make those who tore it down pay, not workers and the poor.
Sexual Prey in the Saudi Jungle (tags)
He was an officer in the Saudi Royal Navy assigned to the strategic Saudi base of Jubail in the Persian Gulf. She was a single mom from Mindanao, in the Philippines, who saw, like so many others, employment in Saudi Arabia as a route out of poverty. When he picked her up at the Dammam International Airport in June, little did she know she was entering, not a brighter chapter of her life but a chamber of horrors from which she would be liberated only after six long months.
Oppose Brown’s cuts in California! Education must be a social right! (tags)
In his latest budget, California Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, is proposing drastic cuts that will affect the lives of students and workers throughout the state, including $1.4 billion in cuts to higher education. The net wealth of the 19 richest Californians is more than ten times the entire amount of proposed budget cuts!
Philippine labor party calls for stop to trainee nurse fees (tags)
The labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM - Workers Party) called for a stop to the practice of charging fees to trainee or on-the-job-trainee (OJT) nurses in the wake of a Senate hearing yesterday on the issue. Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson, attended the hearing and supported the position of nurses groups for an end to the “exploitation of hundreds of thousands of young registered nurses.”
Korean Guitar Workers to Protest at Music Instruments Trade Show in Anaheim (tags)
Guitar workers who used to work for Cort Guitars are demanding justice. They are protesting at the NAMM trade show in Anaheim, Jan. 13 to 16.
What's Causing Kidney Disease in Nicaragua: BUSPH Researchers Investigate (tags)
It's a compelling public health mystery: Thousands of people in Northwestern Nicaragua are dying from chronic kidney failure, and no one knows why.
Waging War on American Workers (tags)
targeting the middle class
2011: Another bleak year for the workers in the Philippines (tags)
2011: Another bleak year for the workers, militant labor leaders lamented in a breakfast forum
Labor's Last Stand in 2011? (tags)
The stage is set, and the main actors in Congress and in the corporate establishment are ready to perform, having rehearsed behind closed doors for the coming assault on organized labor's most powerful sector, public workers. The final preparations were smoothed out in Obama's tax "compromise" with the Republicans, which gave details of the drama's first act. The tax plan purposely did not include a critical element for state funding, called the Build America Bonds program (BAB), which allows recession-sunk states to easily borrow money from the federal government. In the face of enormous deficits, the states would be left to drown. Reuters blogger James Pethokoukis explains:
The Dictatorship of America's Aristocracy (tags)
Obama's betrayal
Labor Wars in NY, Gov Workers in CA Better Prepare (tags)
The NY State budget is a mess, and the construction unions have joined up with Gov. Cuomo to attack public sector workers.
Calls from Joe Lieberman help force Amazon and EveryDNS to dump Wikileaks (tags)
The war against Wikileaks is gaining momentum. We must defend Wikileaks, Julian Assange and free speech. I read now that Paypal has joined the offensive. Perhaps we should all close our paypal accounts.
What’s Going On In Europe? (tags)
"The attack on education is an international phenomenon. In the UK on Wednesday, tens of thousands of students walked out of classes over tripled tuition fees. Thousands participated in a demonstration in London, where more than 1,000 were penned in and contained by police for hours. Police used batons to beat back students attempting to reach parliament. The demonstrations in Britain came two weeks after more than 55,000 took to the streets throughout the UK. A crackdown by the government has included the arrest of dozens of students. In the US, there have been mass protests and, in some cases, occupations in the state of California against tuition fee increases of more than 30 per cent. The education cuts in Italy and the UK are part of a wave of austerity measures throughout Europe aimed at forcing workers and young people to pay for an ongoing economic crisis."
GM's LBO, government-style (tags)
Lost Opportunities - Part One in a Series
The KPFA/KPFK/Pacifica NPR Evening News (tags)
One segment on the Tuesday broadcast demonstrates the ongoing disconnect between the news staff and some station staffers and the political and economic reality that Obama has brought us and make many ask why contribute to a second NPR.
Destructive Neoliberal Austerity (tags)
austerity, not stimulus coming
Threats of violence from a "Buddhist Monk" (tags)
I just spent two months in Brazil volunteering for the New Kadampa Tradion International Temples Project... And was threatened with violence on three occasions by the monk in charge of the project. Others were also singled out for verbal abuse by this nut case. Be carefull before you volunteer for the NKT!!
Class Warfare Jeopardizing American Workers' Security (tags)
waging war against vital social benefits
Philippine Airlines workers protest, appeals to Philippine President to stop layoff (tags)
The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) today returned to Mendiola for a rally to appeal to President Benigno Aquino III to stop the mass layoff of 2,600 employees at Philippine Airlines (PAL). PALEA submitted a formal petition to the Office of the President appealing for presidential intervention to suspend the implementation of the Baldoz decision pending its review.
The Strategic Role of the Role of the United Front (tags)
What distinguished Marx from all his contemporaries who professed revolutionary aspirations was his identification of the revolutionary agent: “The emancipation of the working classes [of every country] must be conquered by the working classes themselves….”
‘Free the 43’ FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS! (tags)
resident Benigno Aquino III is concerned over the detention for the past 15 years of Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, a democracy icon like his late mother, former President Corazon C. Aquino. Last Oct. 28, while attending the Asean Summit in Hanoi, he urged Burma’s Prime Minister Thein Sein to free Suu Kyi, but predictably, the latter made no clear commitment. But while Mr. Aquino seems to be passionate in working for the release of Suu Kyi, he does not seem to be very concerned about the detention for the past nine months by government forces of 43 health workers, the so-called “Morong 43.” Last Oct. 14 Mr. Aquino said the case of the 43 detainees would have to be decided by the court that is trying them for illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
CORPORATE MEDIA IS COMING TO HOME (tags)
Capital’s most severe crisis in seventy years ought to be a moment of significant opportunity for the left. But as the right mobilizes disgruntled Americans via its vast radio, television, web, and print empires, the one mass medium available to the left is driving out its best and brightest.
UAW: Reform or rebellion? (tags)
"History shows that every gain won by American workers was the result of militant struggles in opposition to the corporate establishment and both big business parties. The very right to have a union, as well as the eight-hour day, child labor laws, overtime pay, health benefits, etc. was won in often bloody struggles against the violent resistance of the employers and the government. Whenever the Democrats, under the threat of revolution, conceded concessions to workers’ demands, they did so to smother the social movement so they could claw back the workers’ gains at a later point."
France: More strikes, opposition to social austerity (tags)
"At Université Lyon-2, students gathered to vote on future action and protest the detention of demonstrators at Corbas prison, according to an account in Lyon-Capitale. They criticized the unions and also bourgeois “left” parties such as the Socialist Party (PS) and its presumed 2012 presidential candidate, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Strauss-Kahn is currently the head of the International Monetary Fund, where he pressed for massive austerity policies and wage cuts to be imposed on Greek workers in exchange for an IMF bailout, during this spring’s Greek debt crisis. One Lyon student said: “We’re in the street because we have had enough of Sarkozy. We had had enough of [ex- President Jacques] Chirac before and we will have had enough of Strauss-Kahn.... What we do not want anymore is Sarkozy, capitalism, and globalization.”
French Worker Struggles for Justice (tags)
struggling without union support
PHILIPPINES: PAL labor row erupts anew as workers protest DOLE decision (tags)
The labor row at Philippine Airlines (PAL) flares up once more at the start of the airline peak season with its workers starting today a series of protest actions against the recent decision of Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz to allow the mass layoff of some 3,000 workers. At 10:00 a.m. today dozens of members of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA), the ground crew union at PAL, held a symbolic protest at the main office of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Intramuros, Manila.
Violations of Workers Rights in the Philippines in 2010 (tags)
Aside from the worst forms of labor repression such as the killings of union leaders and members that are well documented by human rights groups, workers in the Philippines suffer from a host of other violations of internationally recognized and constitutionally protected rights and freedoms.
BP continues to poison Gulf coast and people with systematic cover up
French Lessons for U.S. Workers (tags)
The world watches as France once again erupts in protests, demonstrations, and strikes. So much is at stake. If France's corporate-dominated government is able to increase the retirement age, other governments will be empowered to follow through with their plans to do the same. If labor, student, and community groups succeed in stopping the pension reform -- or toppling the government -- workers in other countries will likewise be inspired to fight back and organize in the French fashion.
Lynne Stewart Given "Fighter for Justice" Award (tags)
one of many she's gotten
When I was recently named chairman of the Committee on Overseas Workers’ Affairs of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, I was approached by members of the press for my views on migrant labor. I remembered a speech I delivered last year at the Global Forum for Migration and Development in Athens, Greece. The thrust of the speech was that migrants’ rights have to be addressed on two fronts: ending the neoliberal policies that are responsible for creating poverty in their home countries, thus forcing them to emigrate, and demanding that they are given full rights in their host countries.
Message of Solidarity with the workers and students of France (tags)
Message of Solidarity with the workers and students of France from the exploited masses of the United States
PLM statement on Philippine President's 100 days in office (tags)
Failure of Leadership Marks P-Noy’s 100 Days in Office President Noynoy Aquino’s first 100 days in office accentuated the problem we will be facing under the six-year term of the new administration: an incompetent leadership that lacks political will to carry through changes in the government and in society at large.
Striking port workers in Marseille know the truth (modified by General Joe) (tags)
"They (French workers) are “fighting privatization,” as we all should be. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a slave to private capital either! This article, like most in the capitalist press, omits this essential information to benefit the owners and bosses. Get a clue folks and stand up and fight back or be prepared to have everything stolen from you. Remember, the rich don’t want but one thing. And that’s “everything.” Kind a makes the bank bailouts a little more understandable don’t you think. See “class war” all around you."
The Struggle for a Workers' Recovery (tags)
Stocks are booming; the Dow Jones soared past 11,000; the very wealthy are bursting from their financial seams. Meanwhile, mass unemployment continues, with 95,000 more jobs -- mostly teachers -- lost in September. As millions of Americans sink into desperation, President Obama continues to preach the good word of optimism, based on the gospel of "private sector job growth."
In the 1960s, JKGalbraith warned of two worlds: private affluence and public squalor. Now after the neoliberal counter-offensive, more than half of US states struggle with deficits. Without the social contract, we become wolves to each other.
Philippine Labor party, PAL ground crew to support flight attendants strike (tags)
The labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (Worker's Party) and the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA), the ground crew union at the national flag carrier, both expressed support for the planned strike of the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (FASAP).
Green U.S. Senate Candidate Backs "Immediate Amnesty" For Millions of Undocumented Workers (tags)
"As a longtime defender of immigrant rights, I strongly back the idea of granting immediate amnesty for the millions of undocumented workers currently living within the United States. An overwhelming majority of them work incredibly hard, are law abiding, and make invaluable contributions to the wealth of this country."
9/28 Injured Movie & Downey Kaiser Workers To File Complaints At LA DA (tags)
On 9/28/201 injured movie and Kaiser Downey workers will be filing complaints with the Los Angeles District Attorney Workers Comp fraud unit and evironmental crimes unit to prosecute Downey Toxic Developer Stuart Lichter who is owner of the IRG company. Lichter has poisoned and contaminated workers at the privatized "brownfield" super-fund toxic dump site where a Kaiser hospital was also built
The Bi-Partisan Attack on Public Workers (tags)
States everywhere across the United States are facing the common enemy of extreme budget deficits. Many states have deficits in the multi-billion dollar realm, as the budget crises dominate the debates for the upcoming gubernatorial elections. In these debates, Republican and Democratic candidates are finding it difficult to disagree on the most essential issues around the budget crises. The most crucial question for any incoming governor must be: how will you resolve the state’s budget crisis? The answer from both parties is a resounding: “Public workers and those who depend on their services will pay for the crisis”!
The CTC once again betrays Cuban workers (tags)
// Joint Communiqué MLC-GALSIC (Cuban Libertarian Movement – Support Group for Libertarians and Independent Sindicalists of Cuba)
After October 2, What Next? (tags)
The October 2nd demonstration in Washington, D.C., is a great step forward. We are now beginning to take matters into our own hands, relying on ourselves, and acting collectively.
Green U.S. Senate Candidate Warns Immigrant Rights Supporters to 'Beware of the Democrats' (tags)
"Last year, President Obama appointed Janet Napolitano to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. When Napolitano was Democratic Governor of Arizona, she was a close ally of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and lobbied the Bush administration on his behalf to give his army of deputies the power to arrest undocumented workers under provisions of 287(g).
Two Openly Gay Councilmembers Debate Sales-Tax Increase (tags)
Rival City Councilmembers Todd Gloria and Carl DeMaio — the first two openly Gay men elected to the San Diego City Council — spoke at the Hillcrest Town Council September 14 and debated Proposition D on the November 2 ballot. This would allow the city to raise its sales tax one-half cent for five years to plug the $72 billion hole in its current budget — but only after the city implements 10 “reforms” reducing its pension obligations to workers and making it easier to privatize city jobs. But even in Gloria’s relatively liberal district, the polite but hostile response from the audience made it clear the measure will be a tough sell to city voters.
Jerry Brown Widens the Chasm Between Labor and the Democratic Party (tags)
With the November elections rapidly approaching, most Americans are unimpressed and uninvolved, having concluded that elections have changed little in their struggling lives, despite all the promises of politicians.
NYC Workers Stand with the Muslim, Arab, and South Asian Communities: (tags)
Our Grief Is Not an Excuse for Racism, Islamophobia, Bigotry or War
Not Heard on Grace Aaron/Ian Masters, Free Speech Radio KPFK (tags)
The Ann Arbor Socialist Equality Party Congress Presents: The Breakdown of Capitalism and the fight for Socialism in the United States: Program of the Socialist Equality Party
Labor Day: Immigrants build the U.S. Economy (tags)
Undocumented immigrants streaming into this country from south of the border drive down wages and steal jobs that could otherwise go to out-of-work Americans. Right? Wrong. As it turns out, immigrant workers play an important role in building our economy.
Jimmy Johns Labor Dispute Bursts onto National Stage with Coast-to-Coast Actions Planned f (tags)
Minimum wage workers fight for justice
Notes from Besieged Gaza (tags)
Relentlessly, Israel wages war on Gaza
Obama's Delusions: The Economy and Iraq (tags)
If you’ve listened to recent speeches the President has given about the economy and the Iraq war, you’d think that two of the biggest social issues facing working Americans are improving. But facts are stubborn things. Take for example the numbers of jobs lost in the last two months: 221,000 in June, 131,000 in July. Instead of taking the drastic measures needed to stop the continued hemorrhaging, the President had this to say on August 5th:
Crooked Toyota Poway El Cajon Owner Vincent Castro Fighting Workers Comp For Mold Illness (tags)
Vincent Toyota Poway El Cajon owner is involved in criminal conspiracy to limit his liability for workers sickened by mold at the Toyota dealership in El Cajon, California
USAID: Funding Offshoring/Outsourcing of American Jobs to Sri Lanka (tags)
USAID is giving money to Sri Lanka to "train tech workers" who will eventually take American jobs away.
Dangerous conditions at Kaiser Baldwin Park reported to Dept. of Health, OSHA, JCAHO (tags)
Despite 2003 shooting, management refuses to take basic steps to protect employees from outsider who threatened their lives
We Can’t Defeat the Capitalist Offensive Without Changing Our Unions (tags)
The struggle against the concessionary policies of the Union hierarchy is harder than fighting the boss but we can’t defeat the boss without changing our Unions
BTL:U.S. Workers' Stories Illuminate Intensifying Struggle for Dignity (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine
Nurses picket Kaiser over patient safety (tags)
Hundreds march in informational picket to improve care at Kaiser’s biggest So. Cal. hospital
PHILIPPINES: Keeping an eye on Aquino’s commitment to change (tags)
MANILA - The new administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III begins with an extremely high trust rating of 88 percent – higher than any of the post-dictatorship presidents. This is a measure of people’s belief in the commitment of the Aquino administration to reverse the anti-poor policies implemented during the regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
We urgently need alternatives to a future of stagnation and deficits. The community centers in Vancouver B.C. have a multiplier effect as surrogate counseling and class possibilities. Social justice, solidarity and sharing open doors.
If the U.S. economy eventually recovers and current trends continue, U.S. workers won’t be celebrating in the streets. The corporate establishment has made it clear that a “strong recovery” depends on U.S. workers making “great sacrifices” in the areas of wages, health care, pensions, and more ominously, reductions in so-called “entitlement programs” — Social Security, Medicare, and other social services. These plans have been discussed at length in corporate think tanks for years, and only recently has the mainstream media begun a coordinated attack to convince American workers of the “necessity” of adopting these policies. The New York Times speaks for the corporate establishment as a whole when it writes:
Majority of 600 hospital workers at Providence Tarzana vote to join NUHW (tags)
Victory at union's second Catholic health system also marks beginning of campaign by 13,000 workers at Catholic Healthcare West
The mainstream band RATM others like them are workers (tags)
The mainstream band RATM others like them are workers
India's "Hearts of Darkness" (tags)
labor exploitation in India
Human Rights Group Calls on Authorities to Free Two Pregnant Detainees in the Philippines. (tags)
PESANTE-USA , a human rights and peasant advocacy group based in Los Angeles today , two detained health workers accused of being members of the New People’s Army are pregnant and may give birth inside their detention cell in Taguig City if they are not released. Pesante learned it from the group calling themselves as the Free the 43 Health Workers! Alliance asked President Benigno Aquino III to release the accused communists.
Today in the United States, under the Democratic administration of Barack Obama, xenophobic and racist violence is escalating. The criminal agents of the Border Patrol have reached the point of killing in cold blood, before the eyes of hundreds of witnesses. On May 28, construction worker Anastasio Hernández Rojas was beaten to death by some 20 agents of the U.S. Border Patrol. Then on June 7 in Ciudad Juárez, across the river from El Paso, Border Patrol agents fired into a group of youths on the Mexican side of of the border, murdering 14-year-old Adrián Hernández with a shot to the head. These crimes are part of a policy of racist repression looking for scapegoats, typified by the legalization of xeonophobia and police use of racial profiling in Arizona’s SB 1070 law. But while Obama criticize the law, “Obama, listen, we are in the struggle,” his thugs are killing on the border. It is an illusion to think that the commander in chief of U.S. imperialism, or his counterpart and semi-colonial underling, Mexican president Felipe Calderón, will defend the workers. It is necessary to mobilize the power of the working class to defend immigrants.
Haiti Earthquake: Capitalism, Occupation and Revolution (tags)
The earthquake that wrecked the capital of Haiti and surrounding areas on January 12 produced human tragedy of almost unfathomable proportions. It has been termed “the most destructive natural disaster in modern times.” Five months later, Haiti is no longer in the headlines or on the nightly TV news, but for the hard-hit Haitian population the scene has hardly changed. Now a new disaster is in the making as the hurricane season begins. This was a calamity made by capitalism: the earthquake was predictable and was predicted; the inferior construction methods are the result of Haiti’s poverty, and the swollen slums were the result of U.S. policies that have destroyed Haitian agriculture, forcing peasants off the land. On top of everything, Haiti is under imperialist occupation: Washington makes sure it has ultimate control of the strategically placed island, as it has throughout the Cold War and since. Haiti's devastation is not the result of “natural” causes or even “neo-liberal” policies – it is the product of the oppression of this semi-colonial country by the imperial masters ever since black slaves rose up to abolish slavery and throw out the colonialists two centuries ago. No new “economic model” can resolve this: what’s required is a new Haitian Revolution, a workers revolution overthrowing capitalism throughout the Caribbean and extending into the heart of imperialism.
Stimulus or Austerity: the People vs. the Banks (tags)
The most powerful nations in the world met recently at the G-20 in Toronto and managed to agree on only one thing of significance: the need to reduce deficits, “half by 2013.” Implied by the statement is the need to lower deficits via “austerity,” meaning eliminating or reducing social programs. Why does every mainstream political pundit or corporate CEO fanatically agree that reducing deficits is the most important thing to do now? Let Obama explain:
100 Filipino Organizations ask Aquino: Adopt pro-poor agenda (tags)
MANILA, Philippines—Some 100 non-government organizations from all over the country under the umbrella network of Kampanya para sa Makataong Pamumuhay (KAMP or Dignified Life for All Campaign) are asking incoming President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to adopt their pro-poor agenda.
Labor board to throw out bogus claims made by SEIU, paving way for NUHW elections (tags)
After 16 months in legal limbo, thousands of healthcare workers will finally get elections to join NUHW.
Employers and Labor Leaders Pressure Muni Drivers to Reverse Vote (tags)
The collaboration between employers and the heads of organized Labor is forced more in to the open as the polarization between the classes grows. There is no room for pretense anymore.
Venezuela: The jail bars will not silence people protest (tags)
* National and international campaign of epistolary solidarity with trade unionist Rubén González *
Militant workers in the Philippines slam wage hike as loose change (tags)
The militant Partido ng Manggagawa (Workers Party - PM) slammed the wage hike of P22 for Metro Manila workers as “loose change” and called for the abolition of the regional wage boards for “betraying the working class.” Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson, declared that “P22 is not even enough for workers to buy a kilo of commercial rice or even the cheapest NFA rice worth P25. Since the last wage hike was in June 2008, the wage hike is effectively P11 per year over two years. Na-onse na naman ang mga manggagawa."
Passing of John Delloro (tags)
John Delloro, a dynamic young FilAm labor organizer who helped expand labor education in the Los Angeles community colleges suffered a fatal heart attack.
200,000 march in Arizona (tags)
Report from the protest in Arizona
Labor Under the Democrats #1 (tags)
Labor article 1
Insurance Comm Candidate Padilla Opposes "Cap" On BP Ins-Calls For Seizure Of BP & Energy (tags)
Dina Padilla, Peace and Freedom Party candidate for California Insurance Commissioner has opposed any changes of insurance caps and instead is calling for the seizure of BP and public control of the entire energy under democratic worker management with the profits going to the public.
ARIZONA MARCH GATHERS 50,000 VS SB 1070 (tags)
Que queremos? Legalización! Cuando? Ahora!” “Hey hey, ho ho, SB 1070 has got to go!” Over 50,000 people marched through the streets of Phoenix, Ariz., May 29 to demand an end to SB 1070 and all other racist attacks on immigrants. The national protest marched more than five miles in 100-degree heat to the steps of the state capitol. The action was coordinated with marches and demonstrations in several cities across the United States and in Mexico City. The Party for Socialism and Liberation worked with the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) to organize two buses of dedicated activists to travel from the Los Angeles area to the national demonstration in Phoenix. Other organizations in the contingent included Vamos Unidos USA, AF3IRM, the Alliance-Philippines and KmB Pro-People Youth. The PSL also helped bring a 70-car caravan from San Diego, and PSL members in Phoenix held a preparatory meeting and passed out thousands of flyers to help build the march at ground zero. The huge outpouring of support for immigrants came mostly from workers in Arizona. But large delegations came not only from California but also Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Texas. Erica Maceda, who traveled on the buses from Los Angeles, said : “I am traveling to Arizona to fight for immigrant rights because the attack on immigrants there is an attack on all people. No human being can be considered ‘illegal.’” Protesters gathered in the morning outside a local park for an opening rally and ceremonial Indigenous dancing. Speakers denounced Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for their blatant racism and xenophobic attacks on immigrant workers. As the march made its way through Phoenix, PSL members gathered hundreds of signatures supporting full rights for all immigrants. When asked at the opening rally why he decided to attend, Max Martinez of Phoenix said “Because SB 1070 is racist and wrong. No one with any sense contemplates whether or not white supremacy is wrong.” Martinez, a 20-year-old student, explained that he has been stopped by police and asked for proof of citizenship more times than he can count, despite being born in a local Phoenix hospital. ‘SB 1070 has got to go!’ ANSWER and the PSL led a militant contingent of hundreds of protesters chanting slogans. Protesters carried signs that read “Defeat SB 1070 in the streets!” and “Unity against racism: Full rights for immigrants!” The march ended with a rally at the Capitol building in downtown Phoenix. Initiated by Puente, an Arizona-based immigrant rights organization, and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the demonstration was multinational and pointed to a high degree of class-consciousness and solidarity among workers from all sectors of society. It exposed the myth of the right wing that Arizona monolithically supports SB 1070. Tens of thousands of people, who represent hundreds of thousands more, hit the streets under difficult conditions and with a massive police presence trying to intimidate them. Rally speakers included local politicians and community leaders as well as Richard Trumka, leader of the AFL-CIO. The message from the stage was one of workers’ unity and the need to put a stop to the divide-and-conquer tactics employed by the enemies of poor and working people. The national march to stop SB 1070 was a truly historic day in the growing movement for immigrant rights. It also marked a major step forward in the struggle against racism.
The BP oil spill and American capitalism (tags)
"BP of course has done us wrong, as all corporations do. But it is capitalism that should be put on trial. This is an opportunity to move the people to that understanding. All who stand for progress and human advancement must seize this moment. In every conversation, every letter to the editor, every email, every blog post and every twit we must work to put the transformation to a different society on the table. Only an economy based on fairness and sharing can save us from the disease of capitalism that is ravaging this earth. Now is a time to scream this from every corner of the globe. In our groups and associations and as individuals we can begin this now. We may not stop until we have a new world!"
Rudacille’s Tome: A Must-Read for Labor Buffs (Review) (tags)
In 1959, Bethlehem’ Sparrows Point plant, outside Baltimore, was “the largest steelworks in the world.” In its heyday, it employed 36,000 workers. Bethlehem went into bankruptcy in 2001, and many of its retirees at the “Point” got screwed out of their benefits. Deborah Rudacille’s book, “Roots of Steel,” recreates, via compelling “oral histories,” the history of the Point; the collapse of Bethlehem, an industrial titan; and the baleful impact that it had on the lives of its union workers and communities that they lived in.
Injured Downey Workers Blast Lichter-Workers Memorial Day April 29, 2010 in L.A.-Downey (tags)
Injured workers, their families and health and safety advocates participated and spoke at a Workers Memorial Day event at the Independence Park in Downey California. The park is located next to the privatized superfund toxic dump site run by IRG owner and developer Stuart Lichter.
Puerto Rico: Beatings at the Sheraton (tags)
On the evening of May 20, the notorious Shock Force of the Puerto Rican Police brutally attacked a demonstration of hundreds of students and workers protesting against Governor Luis Fortuño. The assault took place in the luxurious Sheraton Hotel, where the privatizing, anti-worker governor was presiding over a fancy fundraising dinner. As our reporter recounts, the police brutally beat demonstrators with riot clubs and pepper-sprayed everyone with tear gas and pepper gas. This was the response of the government to the workers strike two days ago in support of the student strike at the University of Puerto Rico, which has lasted almost a month. It is urgently necessary to translate the worker-student unity that was on display on May 18 into powerful strike actions that shut down key sectors of the economy of the U.S.' Caribbean island economy. We publish here the on-the-spot report from our correspondent who witnessed and participated in the protest.
Napolitano in Claremont (tags)
Sunday, May 16, 2010
CLAREMONT, California - The arrival of Homeland Security Secretary (and former Governor of Arizona) Janet Napolitano to this community at the far east end of Los Angeles county propelled a march and rally of about 300 people in denunciation of the policies of immigration agencies, which fall under her purview.
Leer este artículo en español: Napolitano en Claremont
SEIU Memo Outlines Plans to Organize Fast Food (tags)
Leaked internal SEIU document describes plans to organize fast food workers in Los Angeles County.
Turkey: Solidarity call for the "Platform of struggling workers" (tags)
Workers from recent struggles in Turkey, including tobacco workers, water and sewers workers, firemen, metal workers, municipality workers, building workers, dustmen, science workers and news workers, have come together and established a workers' group. Support them!
Greece: Blood and tears for the proletariat! (tags)
In order to resist the policy of blood and tears which the bourgeoisie inflicts on it, the proletariat has no other possibility than the resumption of the class struggle, starting with the rejection of anti-worker measures by the government and the calls for “national solidarity”, and for sacrifices “to defend the fatherland and democracy”.
Open Letter from the Internationalist Group to the Spartacist League and ICL (tags)
The Spartacist League/U.S. and the International Communist League it leads are in deep political trouble. On April 27, the International Executive Committee of the ICL issued a statement “Repudiating Our Position on Haiti Earthquake,” headlined “A Capitulation to U.S. Imperialism.” After three months of “zealous apologies for the U.S. imperialist military intervention” in the name of humanitarian aid, the ICL suddenly declared that this was a fundamental “betrayal” and the Internationalist Group had been right all along in demanding U.S./U.N. troops out. While agreeing with the IG’s characterization of the ICL’s policy as “social-imperialist”and calling for a “savage indictment” of its own line, the ICL’s explanation for this betrayal – failure to have a formal discussion – doesn’t answer how an entire organization which proclaims itself revolutionary Marxist and Trotskyist could swallow this support for imperialism for months. Its origins can be found in years of capitulation to U.S. imperialism, notably by abandoning the call for its defeat in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The Open Letter by the Internationalist Group urges those in the ICL who do not wish to continue gyrating in centrist confusion to examine the real record of their organization’s adaptations and capitulations to “its own” bourgeoisie over the past years.
The Economics Behind Immigration Reform (tags)
How convenient for Goldman Sachs. Just as most working people were demanding that the Goldman bosses and other Wall Street criminals either be massively fined, jailed or worse, the nation’s attention is suddenly forced to react to the racist immigration law in Arizona. And although the two incidents are not directly related, they represent a trend that is likely to increase in the months and years ahead.
US-WIDE MAY DAY MARCH/RALLIES TO DEFEND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS, A RESOUNDING SUCCESS (tags)
May Day in the United States was day for workers and immigrants! More than 500,000 people protested and filled the streets of LA and other 75 other US Cities in their hundreds of thousands. One of the rally organizers, ANSWER-LA, TV Channel 54 and 62 estimates the crowd as high as 250,000 while the LAPD has a low estimate of 60,000.
Labor Day statements from the Philippines (tags)
LABOR URGED TO USE LABOR VOTE TO ADVANCE LABOR AGENDA . May 1 protest demands a stop to layoffs and contractualization.
Full Rights for All Immigrants, Now! Fight Racism and Bigotry (tags)
Mangahas Makibaka,, Kamtin ang Tagumpay! (Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win.) The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) joins the mass mobilizations in more than 350 actions all over the nation led by unions and immigrant rights groups to say no to racial profiling and anti-immigrant campaigns, in Arizona and everywhere on Saturday, May 1, International Workers’ Day. The racist law gives state and local police the power to act as federal immigration enforcers. The lawmakers who wrote and supported this bill said it was necessary to appropriate the tasks of the federal government because the federal government wasn’t doing “enough” on immigration. The already brisk pace of the federal racist anti-immigrant campaign just was not fast enough for the racist ruling class in the state of Arizona.
KARAPATAN PARA SA LAHAT, LUMAHOK SA MARTSA/RALI SA MAYO UNO (tags)
WORKERS RIGHTS ARE IMMIGRANT RIGHTS! Diverse immigrant rights groups all over the United States will come out in a united full force for an all-out drive to push genuine immigration reform in 2010. In almost all major cities of the United States, immigrant rights groups led the labor unions, immigrant rights advocates and anti-war and racism forces like the International ANSWER Coalition will hold march and rallies for full immigrant rights and to commemorate International Workers Day. --For the first time after more than four years, all the immigrant rights groups will march together as one. The marches and rallies have been disunited and at least 4-5 immigrant groups hold their rallies separately since 2006.
For a Proletarian and Communist May 1st! (tags)
Workers! The general conditions of life and work have been deteriorating for years, becoming ever more intolerable.
A new leaflet being passed out in Seattle. Spread the word about Obama's REAL ideas about immigration reform while building the movement for full rights for all immigrants, now. And wherever you are, march on May Day, the fighting holiday of the world's workers.
Labor Leadership covering for the Democrats again They're all linked to Goldman stupid (tags)
Do they honestly expect us to believe that their campaign isn't linked to the Democratic Party candidate?
FULL RIGHTS FOR ALL IMMIGRANTS! ALL OUT FOR MAY 1 (tags)
WORKERS RIGHTS ARE IMMIGRANT RIGHTS! Diverse immigrant rights groups all over the United States will come out in a united full force for an all-out drive to push genuine immigration reform in 2010. In almost all major cities of the United States, immigrant rights groups led the labor unions, immigrant rights advocates and anti-war and racism forces like the International ANSWER Coalition will hold march and rallies for full immigrant rights and to commemorate International Workers Day.
Labor Fights Back at Goose Island (Book Review) (tags)
Kari Lydersen has penned an absorbing book, “Revolt on Goose Island.” It chronicles how 250 members of the UE, a progressive union, occupied a factory, “Republic Windows,” located in Chicago, IL, rather then just meekly submit to its closing. It’s labor history at its best. This “direct action” came not long after AFL-CIO labor leader Richard L. Trumka denounced the evils of “globalization,” and the predatory schemes of the Wall Street boy-ohs.
Deciphering the media campaign against Nicaragua Sugar Estates and the Pellas Group (tags)
A stone in the shoe In a recent article, the most conspicuous organizer of ANAIRC´s disinformation campaign against Nicaragua Sugar and the Pellas Group (Grupo Pellas) and the boycott against Flor de Caña finally decided to make an incursion into a new territory, without completely abandoning his repetitive disparaging epithets, in an attempt to give a new appearance to ANAIRC’s claims and make them seem serious. Let’s carefully examine what this is all about.
Behind The Scheme To Privatize NASA Elon Musk, The Downey Connection & Google Owners (tags)
Elon Musk who is planning to build "green" electric auto assembly plant in Downey is also working with Pres Obama to privatize the NASA program and turn the program over to him
May Day 2010 Call To Action! (tags)
A national day of multi-ethnic unity with youth, labor, peace and justice communities in solidarity with immigrant workers and building new immigrant rights & civil rights movement!
May Day 2010 Call To Action! (tags)
National Mobilization for Immigrant Workers Rights!
MORONG 43 RETURNED BY THE POLICE BACK TO THE ARMY CAMP (tags)
The PESANTE NEWS learned today that the PNP refuses to house ‘Morong 38’ . They were asked to return to Camp Capinpin, Tanay. Rizal. In line with an order issued by a Morong, Rizal court, 38 members of the so-called “Morong 43” group of health workers were brought to Camp Crame on board a Philippine Army bus Friday morning. About half an hour later, the Philippine National Police (PNP) promptly sent them back to the military’s Camp Capinpin in Rizal, saying it had no room for them in its crowded detention facility.
CBCP Statement on the Continued Detention of the Morong 43 (tags)
The illegal arrest and continued detention of the “Morong 43” in a military facility represent serious threat to the civil liberties of the Filipino people. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) follows with grave concern the shifting accusations of the military against the health workers, the conflicting positions of government authorities on the legitimacy of the arrest and detention, and the seeming lack of regard of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for human rights and the rule of law. We are deeply worried about the wellbeing of the health workers in Camp Capinpin. We share the sentiments of other human rights groups that the presence of the detainees in a military camp makes them vulnerable to further abuses, psychological tortures, threats, and intimidation. Sustained exposure to psychosomatic strains may eventually break the fortitude and resistance of the Morong 43 into admitting under duress the accusations made against them.
4/29 LA-Downey Workers Memorial Day (tags)
On Thursday April 29, 2010 at 4:15 in Downey, there will be a Workers Memorial Day event to commemorate workers who have been killed on the job and those who have been sickened on the job including many at the Downey toxic dump site where injured movie workers, Kaiser workers and Los Angeles County Department of Education work.
Tenant in San Francisco: What's Wrong with Working in a Bookstore? (tags)
If you are a tenant, there is nothing wrong with working in a bookstore, as long as you are working in three of them.
Why is there popular protest in Venezuela? (tags)
* For the benefit of those who find themselves surprised or disconcerted by the generalised decline of conditions in Venezuela, as well as the increase in popular struggle (2,893 street demonstrations between October 2008-September 2009; compared with 1,763 in the same period in 2007-08) – either because they are unaware of the situation here, they are based abroad, or because they always accept the official version of events – we expound below on some factors which contribute to social conflicts here.
Dueling Strategies in the Defense of Public Education, Part 2 (tags)
In Part I of this essay we looked at strategies in defense of public education that are referred to as “ultra-left,” meaning that they veer so far left that they sever ties with the working class and consequently lose all traction when it comes to influencing the movement. Here we will examine strategies that veer to the right, often ending up in the camp of opportunism, which means sacrificing principles and working class independence for the sake of quick but illusory gains. The interests of working people are subordinated to those of the capitalist class and the politicians who represent them, be they Democrats or Republicans. Finally, we will return to the question of how to proceed forward.
Mothers March & Speak Out (tags)
On Saturday, March 13, about 150 mothers, grandmothers, women who are not mothers, children, and men, came out for the Mothers March and Speak Out in Los Angeles. This was an International Women’s Day event called by the Global Women’s Strike and Women of Color/GWS.
Dueling Strategies in the Defense of Public Education, Part I (tags)
The massive turnout across the state of California on March 4 in defense of public education provides indisputable evidence that this movement is just at the beginning stage. And much credit is due to the countless number of students, staff, and teachers who committed many, many hours of their time, tirelessly organizing for March 4; without this dedication, the event would have sputtered to a stop.
Class Struggle in Claremont (tags)
Food service workers at Pomona College in Claremont, CA are fighting to organize an independent union. Claremont Solidarity fights with them, against labor exploitation and the corporatization of the university.
U.S.-BACKED STATE TERRORISM AND MILITARY BRUTALITY IN THE PHILIPPINES (tags)
Millions of US taxpayers' money are supporting de facto President Arroyo's despotic rule in the Philippines. The continuing torture of 43 health workers may be an alibi to cover up the horrendous Ampatuan massacre and numerous corruption scandals, a preparation for martial rule by May 20. Fascist violence will surely be met by the enraged mobilization of the masses. The US public needs to protest the use of their taxdollars to fund Arroyo's extrajudicial killings, torture, and forced disappearances of thousands of Filipino civilians.
Pomona College Workers Share Testimonies (tags)
Saturday, March 6, 2010
CLAREMONT, California - Despite a drizzle, students from Pomona and other Claremont colleges held a follow-up rally in support of the unionization drive for food service workers. Last week, students, arm-in-arm with workers, delivered hundreds of petitions requesting card-check certification for an independent union to Pomona College president David Oxtoby. The petition also requested non-interference from the College during the unionization drive.
With regard to ANAIRC’s campaign against Nicaragua Sugar, Flor de Caña and Grupo Pellas (tags)
To this date, there is no recognized formal scientific study that establishes a relationship of causality between sugarcane cultural practices and chronic kidney disease (CKD).
US House Chair Henry Waxman Ignores Appeals From Injured Downey Workers-Cover-up Continues (tags)
Henry Waxman, Chair of the House Committee of Energy and Commerce has refused to respond to a letter from the injured Downey Movie and Kaiser workers at the former US military toxic dump site that was privatized as a "Brownfield" site. Injured workers have requested that Waxman push the Energy Department pay for a NIOSH epidemiological study but Waxman is playing hide and seek. He refuses even to meet the workers but has called hearings on steroid use and Toyota. How about having a hearing about injured workers and community members on former military industrial sites which have been privatized. Apparently the developers have a bigger grip on Waxman than his constituents and public who he is supposed to represent.
March 4 Thousands Rally in San Diego Against Education Cuts (tags)
About 1,000 students and faculty gathered at a March 4 rally against education cuts at San Diego State University in California. A similar number of people demonstrated at the University of California, San Diego. A subsequent demonstration in downtown San Diego drew several thousand.
March 4 in Riverside (with embedded video) (tags)
March 4, 2010
RIVERSIDE - In a demonstration infused with dance, students and workers of the University of California, Riverside demanded an end to fee hikes, staffing furloughs, and cuts in class offerings. They chanted as they marched to downtown Riverside, where they were met by a contingent of student and worker activists from Riverside Community College for another rally. After the speeches, a carefully-orchestrated symbolic "death of public education" and die-in blocked traffic on University Avenue for about five minutes before protesters voluntarily cleared the street and avoided any threat of arrest.
Photo set 1: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235667.php
Photo set 2: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235687.php
Article: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/03/235709.php
Pomona College Labor Intervention (tags)
Monday, March 1, 2010
CLAREMONT - Students and workers united to demand justice for exploited food service workers, employees of Pomona College.
Students Support Worker Demands for Independent Unions and End to Abuses (tags)
Monday, March 1, 2010
CLAREMONT, California - The student movement made an unexpected move in solidarity with university employees in a large-scale action at Pomona College, a private institution and part of the Claremont consortium of colleges at the eastern edge of Los Angeles County. Well over a hundred students joined with numerous employees of the three campus dining commons, other Pomona employees, and a few faculty members to deliver a petition to Pomona President Oxtoby.
How Obama's Health Care "Reform" Kills Health Care (tags)
It’s difficult to understand a subject when those explaining it are motivated not by truth, but profit. In the case of health care, both Democrats and Republicans have huge financial incentives to obscure, mislead, or lie. Instead of common sense and honesty directing the debate, bags of money facilitate the conversation, funneled in from the health care industry via lobbyists into Congressmen’s pockets. This is the real reason that Obama’s “health care summit” was full of free-market jargon, staged debate and fake rage.
Caravan to Rio Tinto to support miners locked out (tags)
On February 24th, a caravan of four big rig trucks and around 150 cars carried over 200 people and $30,000 in food to support the Rio Tinto miners in Boron, California.
EDSA "People Power Revolution" Promises Unfullfilled (tags)
EPCC NEWS today reported today, February 27 that NDF spokesperson for Mindanao, Jorge madlos said that twenty four (24) years after the EDSA "People Power Revolution" the greater majority of the Filipino people still wallow in poverty and deprivation, evermore oppressed and exploited. All the promises of EDSA totally unfulfilled.
Wage-Stealing Boss Sent to Slammer (tags)
A dirty rat boss who cheated workers out of 1.5 million dollars is going to be sent to prison. This is a NYC story, but has national implications.
Global Sweatshop Wage Slavery (tags)
Worker exploitation in America and globally
AFP Award Medals to Torturers of Morong 43 (tags)
AJLPP NEWS sources learned today that Philippine Senators Pia Cayetano and Jamby Madrigal and other groups Tuesday cried foul over the awarding of Bronze Cross Medals to military officers involved in the controversial arrest and detention of 43 health workers attending a seminar in Morong, Rizal, early this month. “There’s something seriously wrong when a government institution commends its personnel for committing an illegal act,” said Cayetano in a statement.
Brewing Crisis in the South Atlantic: Oil Exploration in the Malvinas Islands (tags)
For Argentineans the long simmering territorial dispute between Britain and Argentina is coming to a head, as a British oil rig travels to what analysts say is a 60 billion barrel reserve of high-grade oil located in a 200 square mile zone surrounding the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands. This would make it one of the largest oil reserves in the world. Argentina had instituted a naval embargo of the islands but has recently permitted the oil rig to land in Port Stanley, capital of the island.
U.S., French, & UK Imperialist Hands off Niger! (tags)
In Niger human rights organizations, trade unions, and opposition parties (including the Niger Party for Democracy and Socialism) are all supporting the coup. 10,000 people rallied in support on February 20th. Meanwhile the US, France, UK, UN, and African Union all have been quick to condemn the coup. Tandja did the bidding of U.S. imperialism. Meanwhile, according to the UN Development Program’s 2006 Human Development Index, Niger is the poorest country in the world. Sixty percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day, life expectancy is only to 45-years old, and adult illiteracy is 71%.
CNN's cover-up of the corporate fraud of Globalization. (tags)
I am informing through Indymedia International, all the workers of the World that they themselves must build their own jobs. All institutions in America public or private are robbing the citizens. Each American must deal with the problem directly.
UFCW Delivers Food to Locked Out Miners in Desert (tags)
In a strong show of solidarity, the UFCW (the retail stores and food union) delivered 500 bags of groceries to miners who have been locked out of their jobs by their boss, Rio Tinto.
PESANTE-USA CONDEMNS AFP"S DEFIANCE OF COURT ORDER ON MORONG 43 (tags)
The Philippine Support Network (PESANTE-USA) based in the United States condemns the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP for defying the court order to surface the illegally detained Morong 43. Despite the order of the by the Supreme Court, the military and the police failed to present before the Court of Appeals Friday the 43 health workers arrested on Feb. 6 on suspicion of being members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA).
Cops forcing religion on homeless folks in Venice Beach (tags)
Looks like the cops want to force religion on people in Los Angeles - Just what part of the First Amendment don't these police thugs understand?
FASCIST MILITARY VIOLENCE IN THE PHILIPPINES (tags)
The arrest and torture of 43 medical and health professionals in the Philippines by the Arroyo military and police seeks to obscure the ongoing Ampatuwan-Arroyo trial and rehearse emergency martial-law schemes to prolong the Arroyo regime's corrupt and brutal domination. US citizens: will you allow millions of your tax-dollars to support Arroyo's military-police in fascist abuses?
Filipino teachers form organization to pursue justice vs recruiter (tags)
February 12, 2010 Baton Rouge, Louisiana–Filipino migrant teachers who are in a struggle against their recruitment agency on allegations of overcharges and exploitation have banded together to form an advocacy and campaigns organization to consolidate their growing movement.
Boron, CA Miners Lockout (tags)
On January 30th, the Rio Tinto company locked miners out of their jobs mining borax in the California desert city of Boron, CA.
2/9 Picket Of Tesla LA Dealership & 2/10 Bell Worker/Community Forum-Speakout (tags)
Injured workers, their families and advocates will picket the LA Tesla dealership on 11163 Santa Monica Blvd on Tuesday Feb 9 and will have a public forum on Wed Feb 10 in Bell on the Downey Toxic dump site
Haiti: Workers Solidarity, Yes! Imperialist Occupation, No! (tags)
The January 12 earthquake in Haiti that devastated the capital city, leaving well over 100,000 dead and a million homeless, was one of the worst geological calamities of modern times. The earthquake was a natural disaster, but the horrendous death toll and monumental destruction were caused by capitalism and imperialism. Now the human suffering has been enormously compounded by to the militarization of the relief effort and reoccupation of Haiti by the United States. More than a dozen flights by aid groups, carrying rescue squads, tons of medical supplies and entire field hospitals, were refused permission to land at the Port-au-Prince airport by U.S. military air controllers who are now in charge. Food was already stocked in warehouses, but agencies refused to distribute it for fear of "riots." The media blitz is a propaganda war to embellish the image of U.S. imperialism. This phony humanitarianism are being used to disguise a new U.S. occupation of Haiti. We demand an end to the imperialist occupation, U.S./U.N. forces get out of Haiti and stop blocking entry of Haitian refugees.
Fighting Company Union Ideology (tags)
The evolution of the company union in the U.S. is a history of both labor’s progress and its missteps. It is a story that, at bottom, speaks to the battle of workers to find an independent, powerful presence on the job — and to push this clout into the community to help shape the broader public realm. Unions came into existence organically wherever capitalism developed. As soon as workers were brought together by a small number of employers and compelled to make profits for them, the employees naturally sought to defend themselves. A living wage and decent working conditions failed to emerge through the good will of the employers, unfortunately, so workers took matters into their own hands.
MAGUINDANAO MASSACRE VICTIMS NOW 32 (tags)
EPCC NEWS learned today through Manila media sources that the The number of media workers killed in the massacre in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao province almost two months ago now stands at 32. This with the inclusion of a community newspaper’s staff photographer who was previously unaccounted for, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said Wednesday. Jepon Cadagdagon, 28, was included in the list of media workers killed in the massacre last November 23 after the NUJP confirmed that he was a newly-hired staff photographer of the newspaper, Saksi News, published in General Santos City.
Cort Guitar Worker Support Event at Nanum Cultural Center K-Town (tags)
Famous rock guitarist Tom Morello headlined a small benefit show in Koreatown to raise awareness of Cort guitar's misstreatment of its workers in its Korean plants. Morello was joined by his partner in the band Street Sweeper Social Club, Boots Riley, as well as local artists Skim, Shin Kawasaki, David Tran, Albert Chiang and Sue Jin Kim.
2/10/2010 Bell Speak-out On Downey Toxic Dump Site (tags)
Injured Downey movie and Kaiser workers will speak out on the continuing toxic contamination at the Downey Toxic dump site.
YouTube - Raging Grannies Bust Tesla Motors Inc. For Downey Toxic Dump Project (tags)
The Tesla Motors Inc. electric car developer was busted by the Peninsula Raging Grannies for plans to build a "green" auto assembly plant on a highly toxic dump site in Downey, California where injured IATSE Local 44 and Kaiser Downey SEIU UHW workers are getting sick.
Remarks by Richard L. Trumka, President, AFL-CIO, National Press Club, Washington, DC (tags)
Our economy does not work without good jobs, so we must take action now to restore workers' voices in America. The systematic silencing of American workers by denying our right to form unions is at the heart of the disappearance of good jobs in America. We must pass the Employee Free Choice Act so that workers can have the chance to turn bad jobs into good jobs, and so we can reduce the inequality which is undermining our prospects for stable economic growth. And we must do it now—not next year, not even this summer. Now.
Renewed Anti-Immigrant Drive Continues (tags)
The Echo Park Community Coalition (EPCC) based in Los Angeles today reported that despite the filing of a new immigrant reform bill renewed, anti immigrant drive continues This in light of the renewed anti-immigrant bias following the botched attempt to blow-up a jetliner by a Nigerian immigrant during the Christmas season. And also this is because the immigration bill itself has serious flaws in that it accepts the logic of tightening “border security” and thus does not challenge the category of the “illegal” immigrant. This motions to pass immigration reform has given space to local and state law enforcement agencies to increase their repressive activities.
AUDIO: Voting underway for 2,300 Kaiser professionals to quit SEIU and join NUHW (tags)
Election includes 900 registered nurses at Kaiser's largest L.A.-area hospital and 1,400 professionals across Southern California
Unite/Here Members Rally in San Francisco (tags)
The turn out at the Unite/HERE rally was good but the rank and file were well contained and the same old tactics and methods that have failed us for so long are still there.
The Echo Park Community Coalition (EPCC) based in Los Angeles today reported that despite (tags)
The Echo Park Community Coalition (EPCC) based in Los Angeles today reported that despite the filing of a new immigrant reform bill renewed, anti immigrant drive continues This is because the immigration bill itself has serious flaws in that it accepts the logic of tightening “border security” and thus does not challenge the category of the “illegal” immigrant. This motions to pass immigration reform has given space to local and state law enforcement agencies to increase their repressive activities. This is the same condition when the federal government twiddled its thumbs during the Civil Rights Movement, local police departments in the South led the forces of reaction and bigotry against the Black freedom struggle.
The Origins of Modern Socialism (tags)
The specter of socialism is again haunting the minds of the corporate elite, from the Americas to Europe and beyond. This, after decades of pro-capitalist campaigning from the corporate media, which has always confused “capitalism” with “freedom.” But of course freedom and democracy cannot exist alongside tremendous inequalities of wealth — or next to corporations wielding absolute power over elections and governments.
'Making Cents: Life Below the Bottom Rung' (tags)
A new series of oil paintings examining the daily existence of people making a living in the worst working conditions in the global economy.
Will Our 'Green Jobs' Dollars Help a Ritzy Car Company Open a Toxic Manufacturing Plant? (tags)
Tesla Motors Inc. is planning to build a "green" electric auto at a toxic dump site at Downey, CA. It has received $465 million from the DOE to build this non-union auto assembly plant where injured IATSE 44 movie workers and SEIU UHW Kaiser workers have been sickened.
Google/Paypal Owners Building "Green" Electric Car On Downey Toxic Dump Site?1/9 (tags)
Google owners Larry Page and Sergey Brin and former Paypal owner Elon Musk who is now CEO of Telsa Motors Inc. are planning to possibly build a "green" electric car on the highly toxic dump site in Downey owned by toxic site developer Stuart Licther. Lichter recently lost a SLAPP suit when he tried to shut up injured workers and worker advocates.
Labor for Palestine: Response to Defamatory Attacks and Call to Action (tags)
These false assertions come as no surprise. Dishonesty underlies the entire attempt to undermine BDS, and to shore up Israeli apartheid, occupation and oppression.
New Immigration Reform Bill Raising False Hopes for Immigrants (tags)
On Dec. 15, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) introduced HR 4321, the “Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009,” into the House with 89 cosponsors. Some immigrant rights advocates even rallied in Los Angeles to celebrate the filing of this bill But for the Echo Park Community Coalition (EPCC) based in Los Angeles , this new immigrant reform bill only raise false hopes for all immigrants. It is just the same as the immigrant reform bill of 2006 also known as the Kennedy-Mccain bill that was diluted and was shelved due to the opposition of the rightist and other obstructionist and racist anti-immigrant lobby.
Are the Democrats Fighting the Banks? (tags)
How pathetic. President Obama sat at a table surrounded by super rich bankers, pleading with them to lend money to small businesses and workers. The media mislabeled Obama’s groveling as “encouraging,” “imploring,” and “pressing,” but a man who refuses to take action is powerless; and powerless people can only beg. This disgraceful meeting happened shortly after Obama got “radical” on national TV, calling the bankers “fat cats” and other tough words. But words are only that.
Labor for Palestine: Open Letter to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka: Boycott Apartheid Is (tags)
In the 1980s, as president of the United Mine Workers, you rightly argued that, "economic pressure and political isolation of the South African government can hasten the day when justice and freedom reign in that troubled land." Two decades later, the cause of "justice and freedom" for Palestinians requires no less of you as president of the AFL-CIO.
PFP Candidate Dina Padilla Continues Battle Against Toxic Site (tags)
After winning a court battle in a case that developer Stuart Lichter had charged that Dina Padilla had made false claims regarding human health hazards that exist on a property that he owns, Dina Padilla says the battle will not be over until the toxic site in Downey, California is no longer a threat to the public and workers.
The "green" electric car auto company Tesla is planning to build a non-union auto plant at the Downey Toxic dump site with $465 million of US Department of energy funds. The California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day is demanding that no US government funds go to a non-union auto maker to build a "green plant" at the site owned by crooked toxic Downey developer Stuart Lichter. Lichter recently lost a SLAPP suit against injured workers and injured worker advocates who had gone public about the injuries of workers at the site.
Labor board OKs 2,300 Kaiser professionals to quit SEIU and join NUHW (tags)
Ruling by federal government ends nine months of obstruction by SEIU officials
The Devastating Consequences of a Corporate Health Care Bill (tags)
Wading through the endless debate over health care has exhausted the patience of most Americans — the zigzags, obscure language, and long-winded discussion is inherently repulsive. But now the dust is starting to settle, and the Congressional vision for health care in the U.S. is emerging. Instead of being “progressive,” it will amount to a massive, corporate-inspired attack on American workers, the elderly, and the poor.
In Solidarity With the California Worker/Student Movement: Statement of the WSA (tags)
Defend and Expand the Campus Occupations!
Mumia’s Life Is On the Line: Mobilize Labor/Black Power to Free Him Now! (tags)
The threat to Mumia Abu-Jamal's life is increasingly ominous. His lead attorney, Robert Bryan, warns: "There is an escalated effort by the authorities to see him die at the hands of the executioner. This is the most dangerous time for Mumia since his 1981 arrest." The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down Jamal's two appeals. If it were to rule in favor of the prosecution's appeal, this would open the way for Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell to issue a third warrant of execution, which he has vowed to do. Contrary to the misplaced expectations of many, the Obama administration is not about to save Mumia. Around the world, hundreds of thousands have marched for this courageous champion of oppressed. Trade unions representing millions of members have rallied to the defense of Mumia. It is urgent to expand this support into powerful labor/black action, appealing to the integrated union movement to join with the black, Latino and immigrant poor to demand that he be liberated.
Two Anniversaries: Berlin and Seattle (tags)
November 2009 was not only the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall — an historical milestone reported to death by the corporate media — it was also the anniversary of an event the corporate media chose to ignore: the 10th anniversary of the mass protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle in November and December 1999. The challenge for radicals and progressives today is not only to revitalize the spirit of Seattle but to take back the initiative in an era in which the biggest and most confrontational mass actions are being staged by the "teabag" Right.
Students and Workers Resist Privatization at UCLA Regents Meeting (tags)
LOS ANGELES, UCLA Campus - November 19, 2009 – An estimated 2,000+ students and union workers took part in various actions campus-wide this week. Covel Commons where the UC Regents held their last day of meetings was completely surrounded by students and workers with arms locked together. They formed a human chain of solidarity against the regents complicity in the ongoing privatization of the UC system.
Some Organizers Protest Their Union’s Tactics (tags)
Ms. Rivera said her supervisors at Unite Here, the hotel and restaurant workers’ union, repeatedly pressed her to reveal highly personal information, getting her to divulge that her father had sexually abused her.
Over 300 Homeless People Expected to Participate: Informational Picketing @ Rivers Casino (tags)
Ed Fasulo, President and COO of Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, Explain To Me, Your Customers, Your Workers and the Rest of the Pittsburgh Community on HOW The Workers at RIVERS CASINO Can Afford to Support Their Families on Poverty Wages Ranging From $8.00 to $9.50 Per Hour?
Dropping the Ax: Illegal Firings During Union Election Campaigns, 1951-2007 (tags)
WHAT IS Union Busting? ...Union-busting is a practice that is undertaken by an employer or their agents to prevent employees from joining a labor union, or to disempower, subvert, or destroy unions that already exist.
AFL-CIO’s Dull, Narrowly-Based Culture Has No Appeal to Young Working People (tags)
Harry's over 90 years old, but he's nailed one of the big problems of the AFL-CIO's labor movement - it has no appeal to young working people. It's a bunch of old people - grandparents and great-grandparents.
The Bosses Have the Public Sector in Their Sights. (tags)
Years of collaboration and concessions by the heads of organized Labor have paved the way for the aggressive attacks and confidence the employers are displaying now. These concessionary policies have been a catastrophe for workers leading to much unnecessary suffering.
“We’re Looking For the ‘President of Employment’” (tags)
"The government-owned Federal Electricity Commission will be in charge of providing electricity to central Mexico. However, according to the SME’s Secretary General Martin Esparza, “An electrician isn’t made overnight. They calculated wrong and they could spark a social conflict on a grand scale if the blackouts continue.” The first such conflict appeared on Wednesday in Ocoyocoac county in the State of Mexico, where residents blocked the Mexico-Toluca freeway for three hours to protest a blackout. What was clear yesterday afternoon is that Calderon’s decree provoked feelings of unity between the SME, the working class, and civil society in general. Those hundreds of thousands in the Zocalo plaza indicate that people are fed up with Calderon’s structural adjustments. Mexican society took to the streets, where struggles are won, and were doña Lucia, the eighty-something-year-old wife of a SME retiree, told Narco News, “We’re looking for the ‘president of employment,’ but we just can’t find him.” Translator’s notes: 1. FECAL is one of President Felipe Calderon’s nicknames, formed by combining the first two letters of his first name and the first three letters of his last name. And yes, “Fecal” means the same thing in Spanish that it does in English. 2. France’s Napoleon III declared Maximiliano de Habsburgo “emperor of Mexico” in 1864. Mexicans executed him in 1867."
Funding Sweatshops Globally (tags)
Brutal labor exploitation
Monday, October 19, 7:00 PM California’s Budget Crisis: The Rich Profit, Workers Pa (tags)
Public report and discussion on the who, what, where and what to do on California's budget mess. Includes strategizing on how to build a movement to force a sane and pro worker budget.
CONSTITUTION ADOPTED; MOVEMENT FOR A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY (MDS) IS BORN (tags)
Organizers ratify Constitution, launch agenda, begin global movement for radical democracy anew.
California’s Budget Crisis: The Rich Profit, Workers Pay (tags)
Public report and discussion of the who, why, what, and what next of the California State Budget. Includes strategizing on how to build a movement to demand a sane, pro worker budget
Defend The Downey Injured Movie and Kaiser Workers & The Community (tags)
Injured Movie and Kaiser workers at the Downey toxic dump site are still getting sick from the toxins and radioactive material at the site. Despite going to many government agencies and many politicians these agencies and politicians refuse to clean up the site and protect the workers and the community
SEIU blocks ballot count in workers' first union election (tags)
Faced with third win in three weeks by independent union, SEIU officials try union-busting
What Obama Isn't Telling American Workers (tags)
A lot is happening in the tumultuous realm of global economics. The “Great Recession” has caused tectonic shifts internationally, with outcomes that will dramatically change the lives of millions of people in the U.S. and beyond. And while Obama is acknowledging this fact with repeated references to “a new world order,” he isn’t explaining how this adversely affects working-class Americans.
Sweatshop Conditions in US Cities (tags)
vicious labor exploitation
Centinela Hospital workers petition to quit SEIU and join NUHW (tags)
Caregivers cite SEIU corruption, labor law violations, and secrecy around recent contract failure
Say NO! to Swine Flu Vaccine, Stop Big Pharma Fraud! (tags)
Please see the links below, and do your own research on this, don't just listen to the MSM on this, before getting a swine flu vaccination, or any vaccination for that matter. Help stop Big Pharma fraud and human rights violations! Sign petition to stop forced vaccination!
Chinese Revolution 60 years on: socialist revolution, capitalist restoration (tags)
October 1 will mark 60 years since Mao Zedong proclaimed the creation of the Peoples Republic of China. This followed the victory of the People’s Liberation Army, led by the Communist Party of China, over the US-backed Guomindang (Nationalist Party).
YouTube - Shut It Down! UC Berkeley Walkout & Mass Rally by Staff, Students & Faculty-The (tags)
A mass rally of more than 5,000 workers, students and faculty joined together against the privatization of UC.
Alexander: Electric Vehicles Could Save Jobs for Auto Workers (tags)
Stewart Alexander is now a Candidate for California Governor with Peace and Freedom Party and he wants to transform the Fremont, California NUMMI auto plant into the largest electric vehicle production facility in the United States. Alexander is hoping to repeat what is currently underway in Riverside County where CT&T United, a Korean-based company, will begin manufacturing electric cars in the City of Moreno Valley in early 2010.
CALIFORNIA WIDE WALK OUT, THOUSANDS JOINED PROTESTS AGAINST CUT BACKS/ HIGHER TUITION FEES (tags)
housands of youths, students, workers and academic personnel joined the California wide UC protests against state budget cuts, education cuts, new tuition fees in ten UC campus all over California, Thursday, September 24. More than 5,000 joined the protest in the biggest rally in years in UC Berkeley in San Francisco, California up north. The protestors marched down the streets, disrupted traffic and boycott their classes. In Los Angeles, UCLA, CSULB, CSULA and Los Angeles Community College became the center of protests. Thousands of professors and lectures together with workers and students joined hand and rallied in front of the Bruin Plaza in UCLA and at the Free Speech Zone at LACC in Vermont Ave.
Furlough? Hell No! Cutback? Fight back! UCR Walkout (tags)
In one of the largest campus-based demonstrations in recent memory, UCR students, faculty, and staff joined together to protest tuition hikes and the budget cuts that are prompting furloughs and bad-faith bargaining with UC workers' unions.
W.R. Grace Inc.’s Prior Knowledge of Risks of Asbestosis Ignored in Federal Court (tags)
A rewrite and update of an earlier article about the federal trail of W.R. Grace Inc. in Missoula, MT earlier this year, timed for the release of the "health care bill" as introduced by MT Senator Max Baucus. Think about prevention when it comes to corporate negligence and even malice when prior knowledge of health risks are ignored and justice for the workers in Libby, MT is derailed by a biased federal judge Donald Malloy..
EPCC Supports the Quilt Our Pain Built" Project & the “Journey for Justice!" Mar (tags)
The "Quilt Our Pain Built" project is a special creative tapestry of cloth patches highlighting the stories and struggles of hotel housekeepers while raising public awareness of the high risk of injuries for room attendants in Long Beach ’s hospitality industry. The Echo Park Community Coalition (EPCC) based in Los Angeles fully supports the struggle of the workers for uniization and against management suppresive tactics in Long Beach Hotels.
GIVE BACK HACIENDA LUISITA TO THE FILIPINO FARMERS! (tags)
The Philippine Peasant Support Network(PESANTE)-USA stands solidly with peasant organizations in the Philippines in their call: GIVE BACK THE HACIENDA LUISITA to the farmers! Pesante supports the call of former KMP chair PAeng Mariano . Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano said that Senator Noynoy Aquino’s statement that they will give up Hacienda Luisita is just ruse to further evade his duty to give the land to the farmers. He said the Aquino-Cojuangco family could just convert the estate into other uses (such as the Luisita Mall and the Luisita Industrial Park) to raise money and pay its debts, which do not comply with their obligations under the agrarian reform program. “For generations, the Cojuangcos have benefited greatly from the Hacienda and labor of the farmers. It’s time they give it away, selling it or converting it will only aggravate the problems,” said Mariano.
Benjamin Tucker: Individualist Libertarian Market Socialist (tags)
American Individualist Libertarianism is a form of market socialism with self-employed individuals, co-operative businesses, and socialist employers. 1. (If your interested, please see: Benjamin Tucker’s State Socialism and Anarchism: Where they Agree and where they Differ)
Obama's Empty Labor Day Speech (tags)
President Obama is a friend of the working people…one day a year. The rest of the year he is rewarding banks with bailouts and war contractors with more war. On Labor Day, workers were offered nothing of substance, just kind words. Obama began his speech by spending an excessive amount of time exaggerating the leadership abilities of both AFL-CIO officials and Ohio’s Democratic representatives. The motive was simple: the “partnership” between organized labor and the Democratic Party is central to the languishing existence of the two-party system, while helping to keep the labor movement in an equal state of decline and decay.
Alexander: It’s Time to Save California’s Automobile Industry (tags)
Mary McIlroy, a candidate in the California 10th Congressional District race, has strongly opposed the closure of the Toyota NUMMI plant; the plant closure would affect tens of thousands of workers in her district which covers Alameda and other surrounding counties. Mary McIlroy, the Peace and Freedom Party candidate, says, “It is not too late to save these jobs and save the plant from closing.” Toyota has scheduled the plant closure for March 2010.
How to Lower the U.S. Deficit Without Killing Social Security (tags)
When it was recently announced that the federal deficit was $2 trillion higher than previously estimated, corporate vultures — after years of high-altitude circling — began their descent. The dying entity they’re after is the U.S. social safety net — Social Security, Medicare, etc. Years of waiting have finally paid off; the long awaited pretext for scavenging has arrived in the huge federal deficit.
Hilton Hotel Workers in Long Beach Calls for a Boycott (tags)
On behalf of the Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV) a national alliance of veterans, youth, students and community organizations and activist for veterans rights based in Los Angeles, California, we express our unequivocal support to the announced boycott being called by the workers of Hilton Long Beach starting September 3, 2009. Exactly one year ago, we warned the management of Hilton Long Beach that the Filipino American community of Long Beach will not tolerate discrimination of any kind or form most so of Filipino workers inside the hotel. Instead the situation turned from bad to worst. We are appalled at the intransigence of the management that does not only exploits the workers of all nationalities but oppresses them by practicing the most anti-labor measures such as dismissal of worker organizers, checking the workers lockers, preventing them from organizing and other anti-workers measures.
Cash for Geezers: Retirement for Boomers at 55 (tags)
Beloved Air America host in the mornings, Thom Hartmann and Eduardo Galeano could turn our days to light.
Growing Poverty and Despair in America (tags)
what the dominant media won't tell you
World Bankers Agree: The Recession is Over...Maybe (tags)
Few would consider the opinions of the world's central bankers to be unbiased or even accurate. These self-proclaimed wise men of international finance didn't see the recession coming until it blew up in their faces - a blast that destroyed their credibility. Nevertheless, it is interesting to hear them talk, not because they're fun to listen to, but because of "the messaging" that rich investors use religiously in placing their stock market bets, while the rest of us are given a calming sermon, so that the bankers' lackeys - the politicians - may continue ruining the country uncontested.
Injured Downey Movie Workers and Kaiser Workers Speak-out On Memorial Day April 19, 2009 (tags)
On April, 19, 2009 injured movie and Downey Kaiser workers had a speak-out in front of the Kaiser hospital complex in Downey, California. Kaiser has built the hospital on a highly toxic dump site and many workers have gotten injured at the site.
LA: immigrant workers protest layoffs, repression (tags)
Los Angeles: immigrant workers protest layoffs, repression By Rafael Azul and D. Lencho 4 August 2009 Over 1,000 immigrant workers and their supporters marched in Los Angeles July 29 in opposition to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policies.
Health complaints linked to former NASA site in Downey - Injured Workers Fight For Healthc (tags)
Dozens of film workers at the Downey studio which was built on a highly toxic radioactive dump have been seriously injured and the developer Stuart Lichter is fighting to prevent being held responsible for their injuries
Dems and Reps Unite for Cuts (tags)
While billionaires get bailed out and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue THE BUDGET CRISIS IS A LIE! THERE IS MONEY THE RICH ARE STEALING IT.
NUHW PICKETS NLRB LA OFFICE, DEMANDS IMMEDIATE UNION ELECTIONS (tags)
Coalition (EPCC) “ GIVE OUR VOTE, LET US VOTE!” Scores of union members from the newly formed National Union of Health Workers (NUHW) fro different LA hospitals and their community supporters rallied and picketed the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) office at 11115 W. Olympic Blvd. Los Angeles yesterday, July 23 to protest the long delay for union elections.
Long Beach City Council postpones vote on Pike Hotel (tags)
Another victory for Hotel workers and Coalition in South Bay! Led by dozens of members of the Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs and a Healthy Community (LBC) who were in the crowd, with their concerns on whether the hotel would provide decent wages for its employees, they told the council to work for workers interests. Urged on by a crowd of hotel worker's-rights supporters, the City Council on Tuesday voted 7-1 to continue for one week a vote that would move a proposed hotel at the Pike one step closer to approval.
BOYCOTT FLOR DE CAÑA: WORKERS PROTEST CKF (IRC / CKD) CAMPAIGN AGAINST GRUPO PELLAS (tags)
Informative article on the march of Ingenio San Antonio and Compañía Licorera workers and main union leaders to reject discrediting campaign against Grupo Pellas and Flor de Cana Boycott initiated by ANAIRC and UITA.
"We are moving into a world-historical situation where all the points of social, economic and political life will be reset..A revolutionary process is only possible when a radical reform gets going.. A radical redistribution from top to bottom must be fought for.."
Activist Doctor killed in Mindanao (tags)
Epidemiologist Dr. Rogelio Peñera was killed because of his activism, his colleagues insisted on Saturday. Dr. Jonathan Placido, chair of the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW), said Peñera had rallied people in the sector against issues that threatened their welfare and the delivery of health services to the poor. Peñera was driving home with his daughter on Wednesday night when he was ambushed near his home in Cabantian village here. He died from multiple bullet wounds in the head and body, while his daughter suffered minor injuries.
Iran's Coming Revolution: For Civil Rights or Beyond? (tags)
Simplifying the events in Iran as yet another attempt at a U.S. financed “color revolution” is shortsighted, to say the least. But this is the shallow position many on the left are taking. Fortunately, millions of people partaking in mass demonstrations cannot be reduced to “mere puppets” of Uncle Sam — they have aspirations of their own and ways to achieve them. It is possible that the U.S. played a role in the events leading up to the massive protests in Iran, since the U.S.-sponsored color revolution formula is well known: a pro-western opposition candidate creates political instability — usually around election time — and uses the demonstrators who support them, who are funneled money through the C.I.A., to help topple the existing regime.
Nicaragua: Pellas Group displays a shameful insensitivity (tags)
ANAIRC mobilizes to demand damages from the Pellas Group. Boycott against Flor de Caña rum grows
Campaign against the assassination of workers in Venezuela (tags)
* El Libertario www.nodo50.org/ellibertario has joined this campaign and we’re trying to divulge this initiative in an attempt to confront the hired killers that are taking the lives of labor activists in this country.
NO IMMUNITY FOR BAJA: A VICTORY GAINED FOR THE IMMIGRANT AND WORKERS COMMUNITY (tags)
“Half of the battle has been won!” The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) acclaims the decision of Judge Victor Marrero of the New York Southern District Court that denied former Philippine ambassador Lauro Baja’s motion to dismiss the case on the basis of diplomatic immunity. The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) rejoices in the fact that charges against the former Ambassador, his wife Norma Baja, their daughter Elizabeth Facundo and the Baja-owned LaBaire Travel Agency will proceed without the barrier of diplomatic immunity that has protected Baja.
National Bread and Roses Speaking Tour (tags)
No more singing capitalism’s blues: Sisters, it’s time to fight! Featuring Christina López, Chicana-Apache immigrant rights warrior, and Anne Slater, Radical Women firebrand and National Organizer. They are on a speaking tour, mobilizing women and their allies to make a stand against racism, layoffs and state budget cuts. Sunday, June 28, 2pm at Solidarity Hall, 2170 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles. Door donation $3.00. Summer BBQ Buffet served at 4:30pm for a $9 donation. Sliding scale or work exchange available. For more info or childcare, email radicalwomenlosangeles@gmail.com or call 323-732-6416. Everyone welcome.
The Case for Arbitration in Labor Law Reform and The Employee Free Choice Act EFCA (tags)
Labor law reform must ensure that workers who want to join a union are able to do so without facing endless delays from corporations seeking to deny them a voice in the workplace.
Documentary Heart of the Factory (tags)
Hi, we are Virna and Ernesto from Argentina. We are pleased to inform you that the DVD of our new documentary Heart of the Factory, is now available.
With pro-market leaders, the road ahead will be difficult for working people. (tags)
It is the responsibility of all activists to learn from the past and help our movement change course.
Are Mexican Workers ‘stealing our jobs’? (tags)
The Crisis in the Mexican Auto Sector
Boycott Flor de Caña in support to sugar workers (tags)
Join to "Flor de Caña Boycott Group" - Send your letter to the importers and distributors in USA
Making Sense of a U.S. Owned General Motors (tags)
Now that the United States owns General Motors, many are asking, “What’s in it for taxpayers?” This is an extremely good question, considering that taxpayers may spend up to $100 billion [!] towards a company that’s currently worth around $450 million. (Wall Street Journal, 6/02/09) This large discrepancy in numbers means, obviously, that taxpayers could lose tremendous amounts of “investment” money if Obama’s “profit first” plan is put into effect. What is this plan? Strip the company to a fraction of its former self, using far fewer workers and making far less money in the hopes that GM will then out-compete the foreign competition on the world market.
Labor Leaders Put All “Our” Eggs in the NLRB and EFCA Baskets (tags)
Worker’s relying on our own strength and not the courts will drive back the capitalist’s offensive.
Workers fear SEIU’s violent “shock and awe” tactics on Day One of union election (tags)
Workers fear SEIU’s violent “shock and awe” tactics on Day One of union election SEIU has been condemned by the AFL-CIO for using violence against other unions—SEIU Trustee with record of violence tells staff, "We gotta put them in the ground and bury them" Fresno, Calif.—Today is the first day of a highly contested union election for 10,000 homecare workers in Fresno County who are trying to leave the Washington, D.C.-based SEIU, a union that has been condemned by the AFL-CIO for using violence in inter-union conflicts. The stakes have never been higher for SEIU officials, who are desperately trying to stop a movement of nearly 100,000 healthcare workers in California who are organizing to quit SEIU and join the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).
Overwhelming international solidarity for the former sugarcane workers in ANAIRC (tags)
Thousands of protest letters are pouring in...and it’s just the beginning
The Flor de Caña Boycott Group Extends its Protest (tags)
Letters of Protest to Importers and Distributors around the World
May Day Celebration features the gripping documentary: Labor's Turning Point about the 1934 Minneapolis truckdrivers' strike. Film: 41 minutes
Open Letter to the Labor Research Association: Don’t Honor Israeli Apartheid (tags)
As head of the Jewish Labor Committee (JLC), Stuart Appelbaum leads the witch-hunt against labor bodies in South Africa and around the world that support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid.
MORE THAN 60,000 WORKERS/IMMIGRANTS MARCHES FOR MAY 1 IN LA (tags)
Los Angeles-- “ Que Queremos-Legalicacion, Cuando: AHORA! ( What do we want, Legalization, When do we want it; NOW!) This was the slogan that reverberated with more than 60,000 workers and immigrants turned out and marched all over Los Angeles . Meanwhile in major cities and towns hundreds of thousands marched and rallied US-wide for May 1 in a militant and defiant show of unity for a call for immigration reforms to the Obama administration. In the biggest rally for the day, more than 30,000 marchers led by the Full Rights For immigrant coalition turned out and marched from Broadway and Olympic intersection around 1;00 PM. Composed mostly of Latino workers who filled the streets, the militant march overflowed the main streets of LA. At the end of the march they held a rally at Temple and Broadway where a battery of labor leaders, immigrant rights advocates spoke. Among them were AJLPP West Coast Coordinator Arturo Garcia, HERMANIDAD Mexicana laders Raul Murillo and Angelica Corona, ANSWER-LA Preston Wood, Jim Lafferty of the NLG, UTLA President AJ Duffy and Latino Movement USA's Juan Jose Gutierrez gave their speeches at their end program.
May 15, 2009 LA ILWU Local 13 75th Commemoration March in Wilmington at 10:00 AM (tags)
On May 15, 2009 ILWU Local 13 will have a march to honor members killed and injured in their strike
The Inland Empire Marches on May Day (tags)
Riverside, CA (May 1, 2009) – Twenty eight groups from all over the Inland Empire —immigrant rights groups, unions, workers, students, clergy, and human rights activists— united today to call for fair, comprehensive reform to end abuses against immigrants, workers, and their families. Students kicked off the march with a traditional ritual at UCR’s Bell Tower, and then joined supporters from Riverside and San Bernardino counties at Cesar Chavez Community Center to continue their journey to City Hall.
For the Resumtion of the Class Struggle! (tags)
The economic crisis which has crashed down on society has already had and for a long time will have disastrous consequences for the lives of the masses, as every worker can see in his daily life or her work. The bourgeois economists themselves admit it: they do not know what the causes of the crisis are – satisfying themselves by blaming the greed of the bankers or excessive financial deregulation – and they do not know when it will end and give way to the long-awaited “economic recovery”. The current crisis is the crisis of the capitalist mode of production, incapable of stopping itself, forced to produce always more commodities, at a certain point it comes up against the limits of the market.
ALL OUT THE STREET! May Day 2009 National Immigrant Workers Mobilization! (tags)
We are calling A national day of multi-ethnic unity with youth, labor, peace and justice communities in solidarity with immigrant workers and building new immigrant rights & civil rights movement!
May Day March for Immigrants' Rights (tags)
There are several immigrants' rights marches and protests happening on May First. Ron Gochez, of the Southern California Immigration Coalition, talks about why people should come out and march.
EPCC STATEMENT FOR MAY 1 RALLY IN LA (tags)
We march today, May 1 to demand full legalization and rights for all immigrants and for workers rights. We militantly are in solidarity with all working people of the world and in the United States. Today the Echo Park Community Coalition (EPCC) will be marching with the AJLPP and ANSWER-LA and with the May 1 Immigrant Coalition. We are demanding full rights for all immigrants, a stop to ICE raids and deportations and to fight for better workers rights and living conditions.
AJLPP MOBILIZES FOR MARCH FOR FULL IMMIGRANT RIGHTS US-WIDE ON MAY 1 (tags)
The Alliance Philippines (AJLPP) calls on all immigrant right advocates and activists all over the United States to MARCH FOR FULL RIGHTS FOR ALL IMMIGRANTS! AMNESTY NOW! On May 1, 2009. The AJLPP Coordinators Arturo P. Garcia from the West Coast and East Coast Coordinator Riya Ortiz announced that the Filipino-American contingent composed of students, youth, women, domestic workers, veterans and community activists will join protest marches in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. In Los Angeles, AJLPP forces and allies will assemble at PEOPLE’S CORE on 1610 Beverly Blvd, Suite No. 2 Los Angeles, CA 90026 in Historic Filipinotown from 11:30 AM to 12:00 noon and proceed to assembly area in Broadway and Olympic, where the march starts at 1.00 PM
Intl Workers Day - MIWON Immigrants March (tags)
(I'm not from MIWON - I'm just a supporter. MIWON is a coaliton of CHIRLA, KIWA, PWC, and IDEPSCA. These groups help organize undocumented immigrant workers. MIWON has done a pretty bad job of promoting their march on the internet. There are two separate marches scheduled this May Day. This one starts at Echo Park and proceeds to Placita Olvera, where there will be a "human postcard". The other starts at Olympic and Broadway, and proceeds to Temple St, where there's an ICE detention center. It's too bad that the immigrant rights movement is split so badly that they can't even have a single march on May Day. Many thousands will show up to march, but due to a split, the numbers will appear to be smaller.)
Celebrate May Day in the streets! (tags)
SAIC May Day mobilizing leaflet It is time to prepare for struggle against Obama-style immigration reform!
Never Forever 21 Action: Round 3 4/25/09 (tags)
The South Central Farm is the people's land, given to us by Mayor Tom Bradley, in 1993 after the Los Angeles Uprising. The people built an inner-city paradise, the nation's largest urban farm. In 2006, Mayor Bradley's promise was broken: the Los Angeles City Council took the land away and gave it to a developer to build a mammoth shipping center for the sweatshop clothing manufacturer Forever 21. We're here today to tell Forever 21 that we won't work for sweatshops, that we are Farmers. We are the people: the Farm is our land!
Injured Workers Speakout On Workers Memorial Day At Downey Kaiser Hospital on the Toxic Du (tags)
Injured workers and their supporters held a memorial and speakout in front of the Downey toxic radioactive site that now houses a Kaiser hospital complex and Downey movie studio
With Our Opponent On The Ropes, It’s Time To Go On the Offensive (tags)
The pages of the capitalist press reveal the level of concern they have over the survival of their system
Carwash Campaign Highlights Success of Community-Labor Teamwork (tags)
by James Parks, copied from the AFL-CIO Blog.
CALL TO ACTION! May Day 2009 National Immigrant Workers Mobilization! (tags)
Wear White T-Shirt, organize local actions to support immigrant worker rights!
France Jan 29, 2009. Public and private workers mount a one-day strike with mass support. Schools, courts and transportation shut down in several cities. This article is from: Freedom Socialist Vol30 No2 April-May 2009.
Fascism and racism in Denmark and Sweden (tags)
Well, before 2 days I was discriminated again, so I decided to spread information about institutional racism and fascism in Scandinavia.
The Fight Continues For The Employee Free Choice Act EFCA and The Truth! (tags)
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) today repeated his intent on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to block a Senate vote on the Employee Free Choice Act, despite his past support of the bill. The bill hasn’t changed—so why has Specter flipped?
targeting labor rights
LA Area Downey April 19, 2009 Workers Memorial Day Events (tags)
The international commemoration day Workers Memorial Day will be held in Downey on Sunday April 19 at 3:00 PM in front of the Kasier Hospital in Downey at the Downey toxic site. Injured movie and hospital workers along with other injured workers and their families will speak out about health and safety.
EFCA: Joe the MORON Plumber on the Employee Free Choice Act (tags)
EFCA: April Fool’s Joe the Plumber Hasn’t Read Employee Free Choice Act Bill
WSWS: Obama Declares War on Working Class (tags)
President Barack Obama's speech on the auto industry Monday was nothing less than a declaration of war against the working class.
Filipinos Join Nationwide Rallies Demanding US Troop Withdrawal (tags)
Filipino domestic workers, youth, veterans and allies of the Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace In the Philippines (Alliance Philippines) took part in national mobilizations this past Saturday, March 21, demanding the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and the Philippines. The marches and rallies, organized by the International ANSWER Coalition, commemorated the sixth-year anniversary of the US occupation of Iraq.
Filipinos Join Nationwide Rallies Demanding US Troop Withdrawal on 6th-Year Anniversary of (tags)
Filipino domestic workers, youth, veterans and allies of the Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace In the Philippines (Alliance Philippines) took part in national mobilizations this past Saturday, March 21, demanding the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and the Philippines. The marches and rallies, organized by the International ANSWER Coalition, commemorated the sixth-year anniversary of the US occupation of Iraq.
SOCIALISM: THE TIME IS NOW - Los Angeles Conference & Workshops (tags)
The U.S. government ensures banks and big corporations get trillions in bailout funds while millions of workers are losing their jobs and homes in California and the rest of the U.S. If you want to build a fight back movement against racism, bigotry and capitalist exploitation, join us for the April 25 Conference & Workshops in L.A. Be part of the struggle for socialism! Find out what socialism is, what we aim for, and why socialism is the only answer to the misery created by capitalism.
BAYAN-USA Holds 3rd Congress in Los Angeles Amidst VFA Protests (tags)
Information about BAYAN-USA congress scheduled for March 27-29, 2009. Progressive members of the Filipino community representing labor, youth, church groups, academia, and cultural workers will gather in Los Angeles.
Employee Free Choice Act Compromise No Compromise at All (tags)
Employee Free Choice Act ( EFCA) The Real Truth is Employers Don't want a Compromise they Just WantTo STEP on Workers RIGHTS - NO Compromise on the Employee Free Choice Act!
U.S. Senate and House Introduce Employee Free Choice Act ( EFCA ). SPFPA at the Forefront (tags)
Today is one of those defining moments in history as we introduce legislation that puts power back into the hands of the people who are truly the backbone of this economy.
Modern Slavery in America (tags)
Slavery thrives in America. Only its form has changed.
Lawyer of Crooked Downey Toxic Site Developer Stuart Lichter Denies Threatening Injured IA (tags)
Los Angeles attorney David S. White has denied that he threatened Downey IATSE Local 44 injured worker Leonard Martin. Martin is suing Stuart Licher for harming the health and safety of himself and other who worked on the former military industrial toxic site in Southern California.
Why do These Senators DeMint-Enzi and Bob Corker Continue to Spread Lies about The EFCA? (tags)
What is the Strategy being used by Senators DeMint-Enzi and Bob Corker from Tennessee, in their attempt to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act? Keep Spreading LIES about the Employee Free Choice Act and Supporting The Secret Ballot Protection Act ( Better Known as The Employer FEAR and Intimidation Act )
Statement of Solidarity for Filipino Workers of Hanjin Subic bay (tags)
We, the Filipino American community in the United States and their allies express our militant solidarity with Hanjin Shipyard workers in their struggle to unionize and thus end their deplorable working conditions which has led to at least 24 deaths. In January of this year, two more were killed while just as February began, 24 were hurt when a bus carrying workers to the shipyard overturned. We are appalled at the slow response of the Philippine Senate and the Executive branch and their failure to act on the continuing fatal accidents and deaths of workers at Hanjin Shipbuilding.
Senate voted 80-17 to confirm Hilda Solis as President Obama's Secretary of Labor (tags)
Hilda Solis Confirmed YES! The Department of Management Will Now Be Known as the Department of The Workers Rights!
In recent months, we have witnessed billions of dollars pumped into the financial institutions WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED. Reckless behavior and greed have been graced with the most extravagant rewards, allowing the rich to get even richer. After receiving their bailout, A.I.G. executives resumed their plans for a retreat at a lavish resort. Meanwhile, foreclosures have risen, unemployment has soared, and misery has spread with virtually nothing being done for the millions of workers suffering from these afflictions. We cannot sit back and simply hope that things will get better. The financial executives have organized themselves and lobbied for bailouts. We must now do the same. We must organize ourselves and mount a campaign, insisting that government programs benefit the majority of the population first and foremost, not the super wealthy small minority.
Feb 21, 2009 Protest Forever 21 in Pasadena (tags)
The South Central Farmers have joined forces with student groups California Statewide MEChA and D-Q Unity to force the international teen clothing corporation Forever 21 to end plans for construction on the site of the South Central Farm and demand fair wages for its workers. The SCF Action Committee will lead a rally to kickoff a national boycott until the Farm is restored and stop worker abuse ended on Saturday, December 13, at noon at the Forever 21 "superstore" at 35 N. De Lacey Avenue in Pasadena, one block north of Colorado Avenue.
WHY does The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace ( My Private Ballot ) (tags)
and TV Star Johnny Sacks from the Sopranos continue to Spread LIES and misinformation about the Employee Free Choice Act?
CRISIS RAISES RISK OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ASIA (tags)
The global economic crisis heightens the potential for social unrest in Asia, where millions of people suddenly out of work will demand governments take swift and decisive action, analysts said.In the Philippines, of the country’s 36 million labor force, an estimated 40,000 to 200,000 workers are expected to lose their jobs this year, the National Economic and Development Authority said.
The First Phase Needed in Passing the Employee Free Choice Act is to Overturn the NLRB (tags)
Card Check Ruling on Dana-Metaldyne.
STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY FOR HANJIN WORKERS (tags)
We, the Filipino American community in the United States and their allies express our militant solidarity with Hanjin Shipyard workers in their struggle to unionize and thus end their deplorable working conditions which has led to at least 24 deaths. In January of this year, two more were killed while just as February began, 24 were hurt when a bus carrying workers to the shipyard overturned. We are appalled at the slow response of the Philippine Senate and the Executive branch and their failure to act on the continuing fatal accidents and deaths of workers at Hanjin Shipbuilding.
Riverside, Southern California: Community marches against raids and deportations (tags)
On Saturday, February 6th, 2009 at least 300, and by some estimates possibly as many as 500, people turned out in the city of Riverside California to demand an end to the raids, harassment, and racial profiling increasingly being conducted by US Border Patrol agents against the residents of our local communities and workplaces
Journalist Snow Offers Alternative View of Africa (tags)
Independent journalist Keith Harmon Snow began his February 5 presentation at San Diego's World Beat Center with a promise to "piss you off" — and he succeeded. He took on innumerable progressive sacred cows, including the United Nations, the Peace Corps, the Nation magazine, Jane Goodall and Ben Affleck, and he presented an alternative view of recent African history focused on the role of Uganda, Rwanda and the U.S. in the continued war and exploitation in the Congo.
THE FILIPINO SPIRIT IN THE REMAKING OF AMERICA (tags)
Today, we celebrate our misa ng bayan with great hopes for brighter days of economic and moral recovery and renewal under our new President Barack Obama. It is certainly heartening and uplifting to know that we have a lot to hope and be thankful for after this nation demonstrated great courage by electing the first black, indeed, the first colored man in history, to the presidency. It brings much satisfaction after periods of intense crises and conflicts under the Bush administration, remembering 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the economic meltdown that continues to wreck havoc on us andespecially the common workers not only in the United States but all over the globe. After passing through the bleakest of days we earnestly hope to see light.
Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign (tags)
Below is the introduction, ten point program, and partial list of endorsers for the Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign
Will Obama Start the Next Trade War? (tags)
While campaigning to be president, Obama gave the general impression that he would act “cooperatively” to solve international problems, moving away from the Bush strategy of irresponsible “unilateralism.” But Obama took an aggressive stance towards China even on the campaign trail, including the accusations of “currency manipulation,” “violating intellectual property rights,” and “devaluing their goods.” Of course, the average American cares nothing about these types of crimes, nor should they.
Obama’s Campaign Promises and the Laws of Capitalism (tags)
Throughout his campaign, Obama made repeated overtures to working people. He talked about job creation, a tax cut for the middle class, health care, education, the rescinding of the lavish tax cuts for the rich, clean energy, facilitating unionization, and the elimination of the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy for gays in the military. One got the distinct impression when he was campaigning that Obama was oriented to helping ordinary working people, who are now struggling to pay their bills, not the rich.
Portland's Town Hall Meeting on the Economic Crisis (tags)
On January 31st, Portland Oregon held an important — perhaps historic — mass meeting in response to the economic crisis. Dozens of unions and other progressive organizations were able to attract over 800 people to hear an analysis of the crisis itself, proposed solutions, and a variety of workshops which included everything from labor rights, trade and immigration, and a "green economy." It is believed that this was the first such event in the country.
The NUHW or the National Union of Health Workers formed last week by leaders of the United healthcare Workers-West on Monday, asked state officials to conduct elections at 64 healthcare facilities represented by Oakland-based UHW who wanted to join the new group. More than 10,000 workers from UHW placed under the control of the SEIU International after the UHW leadership refused to sign over 65,000 of their members to be moved to a new local that will be formed to represent the health care workers in California.
Is revolution brewing in America? (tags)
As things deteriorate around the globe economically Americans are starting to realize what a bad place they are finding themselves in and that Americans for the first time since the great depression are losing jobs at an alarming rate, losing their homes, savings and the way of life they have grown accustom to
STERN'S GANG SEIZES YHW UNION HALL IN OAKLAND (tags)
This mob, thirty, maybe forty strong, mostly very nicely dressed white men for this side of struggling Oakland, was led by a young female lawyer – there were a couple of nasty ex-cops in tow, just in case. They used bolt-cutters to get through the parking-lot gates in back; they smashed their way through a second floor window, then pushed their way to the front, where they opened the doors, let in the rest of the mob in and then ended the occupation – evicting the (former) members of United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW) from their union hall, their house. “Who’s House, Our House!” No more.
How to Start a Union in Ten Steps (tags)
(below are the lessons taken from a successful organizing drive in 1997) 1) Be the best worker at your workplace If you are to influence your co-workers to join a union, you’d better already have their respect at work. This doesn’t mean that you must be the absolute best, but that you are a leader and rank among one of the best. This first step is the all-important foundation for your effort, directly or indirectly affecting EVERY other step toward forming a union. It helps also to be the best liked co-worker. Not that you need to be prom-king/queen popular, but that you are easily approachable, social, and generally kind. In being so, you’ll make your job of talking with your co-workers about a union – which constitutes 95% of the work of organizing — MUCH easier. If your trust is earned as a good worker and friend, you can better expect that your ideas will be not only better received, but kept away from management during the initial stage of secrecy.
For Media, ‘Employee Free Choice Act' Promise Is One to Break (tags)
Corporate outlets suddenly discover ‘workers rights’ If corporate media really cared about workers rights, there probably would have been more than zero stories on those rights on the nightly broadcast news in the last year.And labor representatives would likely have provided more than the not quite 0.2 percent of nightly news sources found in a recent survey (Extra!, 5–6/02). Yet we are to believe that concern for workers rights drives some elite media to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).
Coalition for a Democratic Workplace Exposed (tags)
You'd think a group called the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) would be dedicated to promoting the needs and desires of America's workers.
What's the Real Secret that big-business, SIG don't want you to know about the EFCA? (tags)
The Employee Free Choice Act does not eliminate the secret ballot. http://efcanow.blogspot.com/
Los Angeles Activists Attend International Gathering (tags)
From January 31 to February 8, 2009, KPFK Reporter Margaret Prescod and local activists from the Global Women's Strike and Women of Color in the Global Women's Strike will be meeting in London with women from Bolivia, Canada, China, Greece, Guyana, Haiti, India, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Palestine, Peru, Scotland, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, US, Venezuela, and Wales for an International Gathering of the Global Women's Strike and the International Women Count Network. See current schedule of events below. See current schedule of speakers below. To interview one of the speakers, contact womensstrike8m (at) server101 (dot) com.
Federal prosecutors are investigating a Kuwaiti company with heavy ties to Halliburton International, probing allegations that foreign employees were brought to work on the massive Bagdhad US Embassy project against their will and prevented from leaving war ravaged Iraq. The United States Department of Justice launched the investigation of First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co. (FKTC) when former employees, mostly third world nationals charged that workers at the company were misled by recruiters. They were hired for civilian jobs in Kuwait and Dubai, only to wind up in Iraq instead. A group of Filipino workers attempted a mutiny when they learned of the company's real intention but was subdued by machine gun toting security personnels. According to the allegations, FKTC even confiscated the workers' passports to avert the possibility of escape from Iraq.
The world today is undeniably chaotic — war, abject poverty, and unimaginable wealth exist side by side. In an attempt to explain the current social turmoil, some have resorted to religion and apocalypse, while others place the blame on the few bad apples that held positions of power as the economy slid into destitution. And then there are those who blame conspiracy, immigrants, or a society-wide lack of morality. All of the above explanations seem to be missing a crucial ingredient. A simple observation should be central to any explanation of the current economic crisis: There are huge surpluses (or overproduction) of houses, cars, food stuffs, and many other products that millions of people desperately need, but cannot afford to buy. This is the essence of the problem.
Organizing Call- Workers' International Industrial Union (tags)
A call to organize under the Workers' International Industrial Union- a union for all wage workers, no matter what your job and whether you are employed or unemployed.
University of CA service workers sit-in at Chairman of the Regents office (tags)
01.16.09 San Francisco. -- University of CA service workers from at least five UC campuses escalate struggle in protracted contract dispute, sit-in at Chairman of the Regents Richard Blum's San Francisco office.
Employee Free Choice Act Now - Union Civil Rights Activists Vow to Keep King’s Dream Alive (tags)
by James Parks, Jan 19, 2009 Union civil rights activists this weekend celebrated the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., by commiting to hold the new administration and Congress accountable and carry on the work they did in the 2008 election to mobilize workers in support of a strong progressive agenda.
Watch out for employers' attorneys writing as guest columnists on the Employee Free Choice (tags)
January 14, 2009 By Stephanie Kraft There's no law to keep newspapers from grabbing whatever comes across an editor's desk and cramming it into a column with the discreet disclaimer "Viewpoint."
Amending The Employee Free Choice Act. A Compromise Every Union Can Live With. (tags)
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is legislation in the United States which aims to "amend the National Labor Relations Act to establish an efficient system to enable employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to provide for mandatory injunctions for unfair labor practices during organizing efforts, and for other purposes.
Workers Understand Democracy, Say Pass Employee Free Choice Act (tags)
Almost eight in 10 Americans support legislation that would make it easier for workers to join or organize labor unions, according to a new national survey from Peter D. Hart and Associates released this week.
Gov. Schwarzenneger declares war on California workers (tags)
California's Gov. Schwarzenegger has launched a full-scale attack on state workers. Two public employee unions are suing California’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to stop a scheme imposing two unpaid days off per month as a cost-cutting measure. (Associated Press, Dec. 22, 2008) The state government is slashing health services and education programs. Under Schwarzenegger’s plan, University of California, California State University and state community colleges will be forced to lay off workers and make other employees accept unpaid furlough days. (Los Angeles Times, Dec. 20, 2008)
4/10-12, Chicago, IL National Grassroots Immigrant Strategy Conference (tags)
Stop Immigrant Raids! Support Immigrant Workers Rights! Together We Build A New Immigrant Rights Movement!
The Danger of Right-Wing Populism (tags)
A strange trend is appearing in the political realm of the Left. Self-proclaimed political conservatives — many current or former members of the Republican Party — are being given considerable room in Left publications, for example in Counterpunch and BuzzFlash. At first it seemed accidental, with only sporadic occurrences. Now these “renegade” right-wingers enjoy ample room in spaces formally reserved for “lefties only.” How is this to be explained?
Google video: Capitalism Hits the Fan-A Marxian View (tags)
Richard Wolff, a professor of economics at UMass Amherst, talks on the current "financial" crisis and capitalism in general. A form of socialism is presented as a possibility for exhausted and anxiety-ridden workers.
International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (tags)
A private vigil at a SWOP-LA members house to remember and honor the violence that sex workers face every day and to remember the victims who have already fallen.
Registration Open! 4/10-12,09 Chicago Nat'l Grassroots Immigrant Strategy Conf (tags)
Stop Immigrant Raids! Support Immigrant Workers Rights! Together We Build A New Immigrant Rights Movement!
More than 300 UHW workers and allies rallied and picketted the SEIU International mock elections at the Radisson LAX Hotel last night Dec. 11 in Los Angeles. World War II veterans and leaders from JFAV and other community advocates from the Filipino American community joined the UHW rally. UHW president Sal Roselli reported that the UHW submitted more than 80,000 signatures to protest the mock elections. He said less than 10% voted. More than 40,000 protest signatures was earlier submitted to SEIU International against the elections.
The crisis hits the auto industry (tags)
A didactic drama about jobs
Human Rights Begins at Home (tags)
On December 10th, 2008, DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association celebrates the 60th anniversary of United Declaration of Human Rights with the domestic workers, women, im/migrants, people of color and all oppressed people whose human rights are under attack and are struggling for justice, dignity and liberation. Filipino im/migrant women workers continue to face the brunt on the deepening global economic crisis and are subjected to rampant human rights violations perpetrated by bad employers, diplomats, governments. We demand that individuals and institutions be accountable for upholding the basic rights of all people as recognized in the United Declaration of Human Rights and the need to develop additional protection for domestic workers. Like Marichu Baoanan, a Filipina nursing school graduate and caregiver who filed 15 counts of trafficking, forced labor and racketeering against former Philippine Ambassador to the United Nations Lauro Baja, women workers from around the world have first-hand experience of abuse, dehumanization and enslavement. Marichu was forced to make the painful and risky decision of migrating abroad in the interest of her family's survival. While she expected to earn a living in a forieign land, away from her family and familiarity of her homeland, she did not anticipate the slave wage equivalent to 6 cents per hour, 18-hour working conditions and being subjected to routine insults, curses and humiliation.
Never Forever 21 Coalition, South Central Farmers Rally, Saturday, December 13th, 12PM-3PM (tags)
ECOLOGY + JUSTICE NO FOREVER 21 SAVE THE FARM SAVE THE WORKERS SAVE THE NEIGHBORHOOD LOS ANGELES--The South Central Farmers have joined forces with student groups California Statewide MEChA and D-Q Unity to force the international teen clothing corporation Forever 21 to end plans for construction on the site of the South Central Farm and demand fair wages for its workers. The SCF Action Committee will lead a rally to kickoff a national boycott until the Farm is restored and stop worker abuse ended on Saturday, December 13, at noon at the Forever 21 "superstore" at 35 N. De Lacey Avenue in Pasadena, one block north of Colorado Avenue.
Bank of America Forces Workers to Suffer (tags)
Bank of America, founded in California, has pressured Republic Windows to withhold paychecks from workers, AFTER gettinga 45 bil bailout from our taxes.
Leftist Union Leaders Assassinated in Venezuela (tags)
On November 27, three leftist union leaders in the Venezuelan state of Aragua – Richard Gallardo, Luis Hernández and Carlos Requena – were gunned down by an assassin. The murder came hours after the unionists had led a workers occupation of a Colombian-owned milk plant which had been brutally broken up by state police. All three were leaders of the UNT (National Workers Union) and of the USI (Socialist Left Unity), a party which has opposed attempts by the government of Hugo Chávez to impose state control of labor, and has fought the rightist opposition backed by imperialism. They may have been murdered by assassins hired by the Colombian company, by elements connected to the police of outgoing state governor, a former Chávez ally, or by supporters of a current official of the governing United Socialist Party. In any case, despite Chávez’ socialist rhetoric, the reality of the bourgeois Bolivarian “revolution” in Venezuela today is that leftist unionists are murdered while the forces of capitalist state repression back up the bosses. While many leftists have called on the Chávez government to investigate, Trotskyists call for organizing workers defense guards and imposing workers control of production. Venezuela today is stuck at a crossroads. Building a Bolshevik-type workers party based on Trotsky’s program of permanent revolution is key.
Exploitation-free holiday shopping with LA's first Fair Trade Pop-Up Store (tags)
The Los Angeles Garment Worker Center has opened LA's first Fair Trade Pop-Up Store in the heart of downtown's garment district, making it possible to buy gifts for the holidays without exploiting workers.
California workers express concerns about Rite Aid management at shareholder meeting (tags)
On December 2, a representative from Lancaster, CA met with Rite Aid CEO Mary Sammons at a special shareholder meeting in New York City.
Some thoughts on the current economic crisis and capitalism
The global crisis is a crisis of capitalism (tags)
It is time for the workers and the poor in the Philippines to prepare for the worse the moment its government keeps on repeating the mantra that the economic fundamentals remain good and thus there is little to worry about effects of the global recessionary trend. The world found itself in the present mess precisely because of such blind faith in neoliberal fundamentalism.
Filipino Workers to heads of G20: Creating a better world order is no more your business (tags)
Relegating the world’s future to the hands of same leaders who created the current global economic crisis is a recipe to further disaster, according to Partido ng Manggagawa (Workers Party), a militant labor party in the country which joined hundreds of other protesters in a march to the US embassy this morning in time for the G20 Summit in Washington DC.
Barack Obama, new mouthpiece of ruling class interests (tags)
In renewing its great traditions of struggle, the American proletariat will have to fight the coming blood and tears policy of the Obama presidency
PHILIPPINES: Labor export policy is anti-women, anti-development (tags)
MANILA, Philippines – The country should not take pride in being the model in terms of labor migration, according to women’s groups who are engaging the Second Global Forum on Migration on Development (GFMD).
Filipino Workers hold March to protest against the GFMD (tags)
As the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) opened today in Manila, at least 5000 workers from the Philippines and other countries in every region of the world came together in one of the broadest labor mobilizations ever organized in the entire history of the global trade union movement.
NYCLAW ANTIWAR DIGEST -- PALESTINE FOCUS (tags)
The Palestinian cause is the right of return for all refugees and nothing less.
The Concept of Work for Less (tags)
Work For Less laws (otherwise known as "Right To Work") are on the march, with backers attempting to add Colorado as their twenty-third state. Coalitions of labor, business, and religious organizations are fighting the onslaught, but they could use some help.
Part 2- World Capitalist Crisis (tags)
We expect more of the use of cheap labour in the less developed countries like China and India in order to produce cheap raw materials and semi-manufactured consumer products for the imperialist countries and thereby maximize imperialist profits. In fact the US capitalist are hell bent on transferring high paying industries to the third world and even already cheap service industries like call centers and car assemblies and other production lines in a vain attempt to cut jobs, paying insurances and other workers benefits that the people are demanding in the face of the capitalist made crisis.
P&F Congressional Candidate Calls For Closure Of Kaiser Hospital Complex In Downey CA (tags)
Peace and Freedom Party Congressional candidate Dina Padilla is calling for the closure of the Downey toxic site in which Kaiser has built a hospital complex and toxic site developer Stuart Lichter has built the Downey Studio. These sites have not been properly cleaned up and movie and Kaiser workers have gotten sick from contamination
The U.S. Economy on FIRE (tags)
The current U.S. economic crisis didn't start a few years ago when banks and financial institutions started selling "subprime" real estate loans to high-risk borrowers and then repackaging them as "mortgage-backed securities." It began in the early 1970's as a result of a long-term plan by America's major corporations and business leaders to drive down workers' wages and extract more surplus value — and the workers' response, which was to take on more debt. Any real solution that benefits working people cannot be instituted until the power of the corporate rich over the political system is broken.
America in Decline: Richard Sennett (tags)
In the race to the bottom, the worship of profit and the self-healing market, education, retraining workers, social mobility and intercultural learning fall by the wayside. School districts spend 600 times more for sports than for natural sciences. The US imports engineers and programmers.
Pulling the plug won't mean the end of the world; there is an alternative. Let's do a Kevorkian on this rotten system.
Changing the Rules to Keep the Ruling Class in the Drivers Seat (tags)
A better solution would be to cancel all debts.
Philippine Government Launches New War on Muslim Groups (tags)
War officially came to southern Philippines again as the government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo unilaterally put an end to eleven years of negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) September 3. A month early the government abruptly broke off talks with the MILF on the eve of signing an autonomy pact. There are numerous reports of U.S. Special Forces accompanying Philippines Army units on their deadly sweeps in the Bangsamoro (land of the Moro people) region. More than 100 people have been killed so far and half a million refugees have fled from the fighting. Bourgeois liberals and the petty-bourgeois left lamely call on the government to resume the “peace process,” which in any case was only intended to wear down the insurgents. Revolutionaries instead seek to mobilize Philippine workers to drive out all U.S. forces, whatever their legal status; to force the withdrawal of the AFP from the contested southern areas; and to defend the Bangsamoro people and their right to self-determination.
Nationalization of Freddie Mac (tags)
The Nationalization of the mortage industry by the government shows how easily the goverment can nationalize healthcare and other services. The steady now increased offensive by the bosses over the past 30 years is because of a failure of union leadership by throwing all their resources into funding the Democrats and supporting the "team" concept.
( Note: In the Philippines during the 20 years reign of Marcos, September 11 is marked by ostentatious cerwemonies marking the birthday of the dictator most specially during his 14-years dictatorship from 1973-1986. But on Sept 11, 1973, when the coup de tat was launched in Chile it cast a giant shadow on the dictatorship and the primacy of armed struggle against the martial law was upheld. The AJLPP decided to print a version of this article that was first published in the September 2006 issue of Socialism and Liberation magazine. Let everyone remember and never forget the dark days of US-imposed dictatorships in Chile and the Philippines.) ********
ECONOMIC CRISIS AFFECTS ELDERLY (tags)
Recession whatever they call it, marches on! They called it “ jobless growth”, a “slowdown” an economic crisis and all politicians call it except by its true name. Why are they so afraid of this word? Although it affects everyone, politicians and bourgeois econimist refuse to call it by its name. But the hard facts tells the truth. Now, the seniors and older Americans are the latest victims of these recession.
Hotel Workers Rising: Call for Liveable Wages and Humane Workloads (tags)
Hotel service workers of the union Unite Here! Local 19 demonstrated in front of downtown San Jose hotels. They won community support for their 2008 contract negotiations as part of a larger struggle to transform traditionally low-wage hospitality jobs into unionized family-sustaining employment nationwide.
After DNC/RNC, fight ICE and support immigrant rights struggle: a call to action (tags)
please read, forward widely, discuss with others, and ACT!
The Downey Toxic Hell Hole: Injured Workers, Liability And The Business Of Stuart Lichtn (tags)
Toxic site developer Stuart Lichter who has developed the Downey site in the Los Angeles area without properly cleaning up the site. Now hundreds of workers are sick and fighting for healthcare and some have been sued by Lichter for going public about the health dangers at the site.
Scientology Cult Exposes Foreign Workers to Deadly Carcinogen (tags)
The Scientology cult is once again to blame for an act of callous disregard for worker safety; indeed, for workers’ very lives. Once again, the scandal involves the cult’s 440 foot luxury ocean liner “Freewinds.” In this case, we have obtained some new and very disturbing information about the cult’s efforts to keep secret the extent to which their ship was contaminated with highly carcinogenic blue asbestos.
Building Bridges Radio: American Idol - In Reality a Sweatshop (tags)
WBAI's Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report presents this 28 minute radio program. TO LISTEN CLICK ON WEB LINK BELOW
Facts for Working People (tags)
Labors Militant Voice (LMV) publishes a newspaper which aims to talk to the working class about issues effecting us. August issue: Why Gas Prices are so High, How to Apply for a Government Bail Out, Strikers in South Africa chant "Eat the Rich" and Why we Need a Workers Party Now.
SEIU Pres Stern's Hand Picked CA Operative Investigated For Rigging Elections-Cover-up (tags)
The hand picked political operative of SEIU President Tyrone Freeman has been charged with rigging the recent elections of his 160,000 member local. There is also evidence that SEIU Pres Andy Stern for six years has been covering up charges of corruption by Freeman. This implicates Stern in organizing a corrupt convention, illegally manipulating the votes and being involved in covering up corrupt officials. The International is also involved in a raid on the independent Puerto Rican teachers union FMPR which is labor imperialism.
New Long beach Coalition, Formed (tags)
The Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs and A Healthy Community was formally formed in a meeting last Monday, August 11,2008 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach after three months of existence. Attended by more than thirty community leaders, academics, volunteers and union organizers, the Coalition reviewed the actions that the group have undertaken since its first meeting last June and decided formally to form the Long Beach Coalition. Their primary aim is to consolidate their efforts and strengthen the group.
Targeting Immigrants - The Largest Ever US ICE Raid (tags)
Police state tactics intensify.
LA Downey Brownfield Toxic Site Developer Sues P&F Congressional Candidate &Injured Worker (tags)
Lichter is on the left in his corporate jet traveling around the country making deals to develop toxic sites. Downey Toxic Brownfield site developer Stuart Lichter has sued Peace and Freedom party Congressional candidate Dina Padilla, Vicky Travis of www.kaiserpapers.org and up to 1000 injured workers for exposing a corrupt swindle involving the development of the Downey Brownfield site. Movie industry workers and Kaiser workers have been sickened by toxins and mold at the highly dangerous site. Lichter who formerly worked for the GSA has schemed to develop these toxic sites without properly cleaning them up and is also now is suing Dreamworks over liability for injuries on the movie production site. Stuart is one of the owners of IRG. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/business/la-fi-downey26-2008jun26,0,2356057.story
SEIU Pres Stern's Key CA Operative Tyrone Freeman Linked To Corruption (tags)
SEIU Pres Andy Stern is seeking to consolidate hundreds of thousands of workers in California and force them into a homecare workers local led by hand picked LA operative Tyrone Freeman. It has now been revealed that Stern's ally is California has been using hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay his family members for video and pr services. The many workers of the local earn around $9.00 an hour
EPCC SUPPORTS CALIFORNIA STATE WORKERS PROTESTS (tags)
“NO TO PAY CUTS! “We work, we sweat, we won’t pay your debts!” The Echo Park Community Coalition (EPCC ) and the Justice for Filipino veterans (JFAV) through its Coordinator Arturo P. Garcia, vehemently condemns California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for signing an executive order forcing up to 200,000 permanent state workers to start receiving the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour The EPCC further scores the governor’s executive order that also includes a hiring freeze, no overtime pay and the releasing of contract consultants. (San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 1) . Additionally, the order will lay off 10,300 contract and part-time workers.
All Doctors Eliminated At Ca-OSHA (tags)
California has eliminated all medical doctors at Ca-OSHA for the 17 million workers in the state. The last doctor of Ca-OSHA has written a statement about the state of Ca-OSHA.
UHW-West Rally Against Moves to Divide The Union (tags)
" They Say Divide US, We Say Unite Us" More than 6,000 health care workers from the United Health Workers (UHW) -West and their community supportrs all-over the west coast rallied infront of the Marriot Manhattan Beach Hotel last Monday, July 14, 2008 fro 6:00 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon.
AJLPP Supports 5 Days UC State Wide Workers Strike (tags)
The Alliance- Philippines (AJLPP) expresses militant solidarity support to the five days strike declared by University of California (UC) workers,( many of them Filipinos) who went on a five day strike starting July 14 all over California. More than 9,000 University of California workers went on a five-day strike at UCʼs ten campuses and five medical centers. The strike will begin on July 14th and conclude on July 18th. During the strike, hundreds of medical workers mostly Filipinos manned the picket lines and refused to work.
Underground workers movement vs. DCWD, Franklin Baker (tags)
Long Beach Mass Action, July 10 Displays Community Unity (tags)
More than 600 people turned out in a two-hour march-rally last July 10 proving that the community is “the heart of Long Beach” The march led by the Long Beach Coalition for Better Jobs and Healthy Communities started with a picket at the Hilton Hotel at around 5:00 PM . Then the coalition marched to the Long Beach light house near the Aquarium of the Pacific where they held an hour long rally. Led by Hilton Hotel workers who are organizing themselves, Filipinos, Latinos, African- American hotel workers demanded hotel administration neutrality over their efforts to organize themselves.
EPCC Supports UHW-West mass action in LA (tags)
The Echo PArk Community Coalition (EPCC) supports the mass action on July 14 is slated to be held at the Manhattan Beach Marriot Hotel by the United Health Care Workers (UHW) -West against the plan of the SEIU /International to divide the UHW-West. The mass action by the UHW-West was called for the hearing that could result in tearing apart the UHW based on a plan by the SEIU International to divide the UHW. The 150,000 UHW which has a large Filipino membership among its unionized workers is a member of the SEIU International which has 2 million members.
Revolutionary Justice for the Filipino Working Class Victims of Big Capitalists! (tags)
The Revolutionary Council of Trade Unions (RCTU) in Southern Mindanao, an underground group of revolutionary unions and an allied organization of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) expresses its strongest indignation of the systematic attack perpetrated by foreign and local comprador-capitalists against the Filipino working class.
Alternatives to Free Trade: Fair Trade and Beyond (tags)
The global debate around free-trade and its consequences has evolved tremendously in recent years, from tiny circles of leftist critics into a broad international protest movement. Although the movement began to bloom in response to the policies of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the biggest demonstrations have been in response to the now-popular "bi-lateral" free-trade agreements that economically powerful countries sign with poorer nations. Once one has become conscious of the problems created by free-trade agreements, whether they are international or regional, an immediate task presents itself: finding a feasible alternative. Yes, the trade policy advocated by most big business politicians is "free-trade," and yes, this policy has had devastating consequences for working and poor people worldwide, while filling the already-full bank accounts of the rich. But the issue of "free-trade" alone isn't sufficient to fully explain the vast social problems that plague so many countries.
LAX hotel workers 30 hour mega sit in starts today (tags)
The LAX Hotel workers are still hip-deep in their fight for the right to bargain collectively, and they're reaching out to the broader community to join them in a novel action coming up on the 16th and 17th of June.
Sierra Leone Movement Under Attack! (tags)
Slanderous news media has appeared in a government linked newspaper and a campaign of rumors has been initiated, obviously designed to undermine and isolate the Africanist Movement and its director, Chernoh Alpha M. Bah. Sierra Leoneís neocolonial government is apparently moving to criminalize the Africanist Movement in order to justify jailing and/or otherwise destroying these courageous leaders of our struggle for African self-determination.
Workers walk off MGM Mirage Dubai World CityCenter Site in Protest (tags)
Union leaders: We'll picket until contractor meets demands for increased safety
Workers walk off MGM Mirage Dubai World CityCenter Site in Protest (tags)
Union leaders: We'll picket until contractor meets demands for increased safety
KPFK Continues to Ignore AFTRA and SAG Labor Disputes (tags)
Despite being in the middle of Hollywood and the entertainment industry war on workers, they find no voice on "Revolutionary Radio " KPFK.
ARAMARK Food Service Workers on Strike (tags)
LAANE video about a new strike by Aramark food service workers.
Union Stages MGM Casino Protest at Foxwoods (tags)
The United Auto Workers gathered near the new MGM Grand at Foxwoods in Ledyard on Saturday to kick off the first of two days of protests against what the union calls an unfair tipping policy and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe's refusal to bargain.
911 Truth's Failed Trajectory - Thanks to CIA/FBI Infiltration! (tags)
Take two 6 ton jet engines and rocket them at 500 miles at the Pentagon's exterior and you're definitely going to get not only indentations but 2 big,deep holes also! Obviously whatever hit the Pentagon was not a Jetliner with a 6 ton engine on either wing! ...................................................................
May Day 2008 International Workers Day and Immigrant Mobilization Report!! (tags)
40-pages report: May Day 2008 International Workers Day and Mobilization to Support Immigrant Rights! Reports from Around the World
May Day becomes an annual tradition for immigrant and workers' rights (tags)
In San José and all across the United States, marches for immigrant and workers' rights are reviving the long-dormant American tradition of May Day. While legislation for comprehensive immigration reform has stalled in Congress, demonstrators are poised to take the struggle to the next level.
MARCH AND RALLY FOR IMMIGRANT RIGHTS! (tags)
Massive mass actions for May 1 that were held in major U.S. cities was a resounding success. In scores of major cities like Los Angeles (30,000), Seattle, WA (6,000)San Francisco,( 10,000) New York, (10,000) . and Chicago (50,000), Filipino Americans immigrants and advocates joined up with their Latino immigrant allies to demand full rights and legalization for immigrants, a stop to ICE raids and deportations and workers rights during May 1 International Workers Day. Arturo P. Garcia, CDIR and AJLPP deputy national coordinator said: “while the bourgeois media tends to praise the police for “good behavior” and chide the rallyist for supposed the low-turn-out, immigrant groups were satisfied with the unity shown at the rally. For the third year in a row, after the repeal of the infamous HR 4437, the need for a comprehensive immigration reform and a pathways to citizenship was again thrust into the limelight and the national stage. It clearly shows the immigrant rights movement is alive and kicking, more united and consolidated.” Garcia added.
May Day Strike Against the War Shuts Down All U.S. West Coast Ports (tags)
On May 1, every port on the West Coast of the United States was shut down to demand an end to the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The historic May Day walkout by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is the first time ever that an American union has struck against a U.S. war. The union ranks defied the rulings of an arbitrator, who twice ordered them to go to work. They overcame the capitulations of the ILWU leadership, which didn't want the work stoppage in the first place, tried to water it down and cowered before the threats of legal action while waving the flag. The employers' Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) declared the May 1 port shutdown an "illegal strike." But after all the huffing and puffing from the bosses' mouthpieces, the dock workers pointed the way to defeating the imperialist war by mobilizing working-class power. In the end, it was more than a work stoppage. The dock workers' May Day strike against the war was a first step, a show of what it will take to bring down the warmongers in Washington. Their "symbolic" action was felt all the way to Iraq, where dock workers in two ports stopped work in solidarity with the ILWU. But it was only a beginning. What is needed is not only industrial action but a political offensive against the Democrats and Republicans, the partner parties of American imperialism, to build a class-struggle workers party.
Struggling for the autonomy of Venezuela’s social movements (tags)
* This editorial comes from issue #53 (May-June 2008) of El Libertario, a Venezuelan anarchist voice of ideas and proposals for action. It confirms our commitment to autonomous social mobilization, which has already begun to express itself through concrete struggles from below, as in the recent steelworkers conflict.
May 1, Oxnard : Farmworkers, Longshoremen, and Youth Take to the Streets (tags)
A 300+ strong march, built independently by the Frente Contra las Redadas and allied Barrio/Workers' defense organizations, marched under the red banners of Workers' Power, resistance to the Migra/I.C.E. raids, and zero compromise with the forces of imperialism and police terror (Democrats, Republicans, and their non-profit proxies)!
30,000 IMMIGRANTS/ WORKERS MARCH-RALLY ON MAY 1st IN LA (tags)
For the third year in a row. more or less 30,000 marchers from three major groups- the MIWON, March 25 Coalition and the April 7th Coalition for Full Immigrants Rights in Los Angeles and demand full rights and legalization for immigrants. A stop on ICE raids and deportations and to commemorate International Workers Day. The media called it “a combination of a holiday parade and party celebrations” Different media outlets and the LAPD have different estimates like a conservative estimate from as low as 7,000 from KCRW and as high as 30,000 from NPR radio. In Los Angeles, California, shouting: MAKIBAKA, HUWAG MATAKOT, LEGALISAYON, NGAYON and ANG TAO, ANG BAYAN NGAYON AY LUMALABAN. the newly formed Filipino American For Immigration Reform (FAIR) with the Pilipino Workers Center marched from Historic Filipinotown to Macarthur Park and joined 15,00 strong MIWON contingent that marched from Macarthur Park to downtown Broadway.
Workers/Immigrants US-Wide Rallies on May 1 (tags)
The Coalition in Defense of Immigrants Rights (CDIR) –USA and the Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) announced today that mass actions for May 1 that were held in major U.S. cities was a resounding success. In scores of major cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, New York.Phoenix and Chicago, Filipino Americans immigrants and advocates joined up with their Latino immigrant allies to demand full rights and legalization for immigrants, a stop to ICE raids and deportations and workers rights during May 1 International Workers Day. Arturo P. Garcia, CDIR and AJLPP deputy national coordinator said: “while the bourgeois media tends to praise the police for “good behavior” and chide the rallyist for supposed the low-turn-out, immigrant groups were satisfied with the unity shown at the marches and rallies all over the United States. For the third year in a row, after the repeal of the infamous HR 4437, the need for a comprehensive immigration reform and a pathways to citizenship was again thrust into the limelight and the national stage. It clearly shows the immigrant rights movement is alive and kicking, more united and consolidated.” Garcia added.
Workers/Immigrants March Rally in LA on May 1 (tags)
—For the third year in a row. more or less than 30,000 marchers from three major groups- the MIWON, March 25 Coalition and the April 7th Coalition for Full Immigrants Rights in Los Angeles and demand full rights and legalization for immigrants and to commemorate International Workers Day. The media called it “a combination of a holiday parade and party celebrations” Different media outlets have different estimates like a conservative estimate from as low as 7,000 from KCRW and as high as 30,000 from NPR radio. In Los Angeles, California the newly formed Filipino American For Immigration Reform (FAIR) with the Pilipino Workers Center marched from Historic Filipinotown to Macarthur Park and joined 15,000 strong MIWON contingent that marched from Macarthur Park to downtown Broadway.
All Out to May Day 2008 March for Immigrant Worker Rights! (tags)
On May Day 2008, National Immigrant Solidarity Network is calling for a multi-ethnic, decentralized, multi-topic and multi-tactic national day of mobilization to support immigrant workers rights.
4/30 Victory in Vietnam; 5/1 Labor Day-Support ILWU (tags)
April 30, 1975 was the happiest day for the first generation after WW2 and after the Holocaust. It was the day when the little people in black pajamas, the workers and peasants of Vietnam, defeated the mightiest death machine the world had seen since Nazi Germany, namely Nazi USA, so that the workers of the world literally danced in the streets, including in the USA. We hope to do the same for this year's milestone labor strike for peace led by the ILWU on May Day 2008.
FAIR –PWC Press Conference Held April 26 for LA May 1 Mass Action (tags)
In response to nationally coordinated raids conducted by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) and the pressing problems of immigration by more than 12 million immigrants including 1.5 million Filipinos in the U,S, the Filipino Americans for Immigration Reform (FAIR) and the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC) held a Press Conference at the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC) on April 26, 2008 in preparation for the May 1 Rally Immigrant Workers Day March-Rally in downtown Los Angeles. The FAIR press conference JUSTICE FOR IMMIGRANTS was well attended by different immigrant rights, youth, student,World War II veterans and community advocates. Some of the speakers in the press conference were Paolo Espiritu: FAIR convemor; Aquilina Soriano Versoza: PWC Executive Director; Arturo Garcia: JFAV and AJLPP deputy coordinator :Jollene Levid: Gabriela Network organizer; Tracy Lachica Buenavista: Assistant Professor Dept. of Asian American Studies, Cal State Northridge; Carmina Ocampo: UCLA Asian Pacific Islander Law Student Associatio; Anna Sterling: UCLA Samahang Pilipino at UCLA; Nimual A. Ornillo: USC Troy Philippines president; Joel Baustita: March 25th Coalition and MIWON.
May 1 US-WIDE MASS Actions (tags)
The Coalition in Defense of Immigrants Rights (CDIR) –USA and the Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) announced today that mass actions for May 1 will be held in major U.S. cities to commemorate International Workers Day and demand full rights and legalization for immigrants. In major cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, New York and Chicago, Filipino Americans are joining up with their Latino immigrant allies to protest ICE raids and anti-immigrant bashing. They will also demand legalization and full rights for all immigrants. Joint MIWON/March 25th and April 7 Coalition March/Rally In Los Angeles, California the newly formed Filipino American For Immigration Reform (FAIR) with the Pilipino Workers Center will march form PWC in 153 Glendale, Historic Filipnotown to Macarthur Park and join the MIWON Contingent that will march form Macarthur Park to downtown Broadway.
FAIR –PWC Press Conference Held April 26 for LA May 1 Mass Action (tags)
In response to nationally coordinated raids conducted by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) and the pressing priblmes of immigration by more than 12 million immigrants including 1.5 million Filipinos in the U,S, the Filipino Americans for Immigration Reform (FAIR) and the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC) held a Press Conference at the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC) on April 26, 2008 in preparation for the May 1 Rally Immigrant Workers Day March-Rally in downtown Los Angeles. The FAIR press conference JUSTICE FOR IMMIGRANTS was well attended by different immigrant rights, youth, student,World War II veterans and community advocates. Some of the peakers in the press conference were Paolo Espiritu: FAIR convemor; Aquilina Soriano Versoza: PWC Executive Director; Arturo Garcia: JFAV and AJLPP deputy coordinator :Jollene Levid: Gabriela Network organizer; Tracy Lachica Buenavista: Assistant Professor Dept. of Asian American Studies, Cal State Northridge; Carmina Ocampo: UCLA Asian Pacific Islander Law Student Associatio; Anna Sterling: UCLA Samahang Pilipino at UCLA; Nimual A. Ornillo: USC Troy Phil
On May 1, all 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast are to be shut down by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in protest against the U.S. war on Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a historic event of international significance: labor action against imperialist war by a major American union. The strategically placed port workers in the ILWU can bring commerce with Asia to a grinding halt, and they’re about to demonstrate it. The maritime employers are already screaming, and you can bet it’s got the attention of the warmongers in Washington. All labor should take up the challenge this poses: For workers strikes against the war! Meanwhile, immigrants’ rights groups are once again mobilizing on May Day. And on April 30 and May 1, the independent truckers who move cargo to and from the docks may play an important role in a shutdown. The imperialist war on Afghanistan and Iraq is also a war on immigrants, minorities, working people and democratic rights “at home.” We need to defeat this attack here and abroad, in opposition to both the capitalist war parties. The “antiwar movement,” whose aim has always been to pressure the Democrats, is at a dead end. What’s needed is working-class action independent of the bosses. What that takes is a fundamental break from the Democratic Party and the pro-capitalist politics that infuse the labor bureaucracy.
Support Working Mothers This Mother's Day! (tags)
Show your love for working mothers this Mother’s Day! Instead of getting your mom chocolates or flowers again this year, think about making a donation in her name to support the basic rights of working mothers in Latin America
May 1: March for Dignity, Workers' Regional Mobilization in Oxnard - PRESS RELEASE (tags)
Who: Frente Contra las Redadas del Condado de Ventura What: MARCH FOR DIGNITY: INTERNATIONAL WORKERS' DAY REGIONAL MOBILIZATION When: Thursday May 1, 2008 Starting at 5pm Where: Camino del Sol Park (Corner of Rose Ave. and Camino del Sol) in the City of Oxnard
SEIU CA Workers Speak Out On Crisis In SEIU: Part 1 & Part 2 (tags)
A crisis is growing within the SEIU which is the largest union in California with 650,000 members. This video is of a forum of SEIU members from throughout California who discuss some of the issues the members face with mega-mergers of locals and labor management partnerships that threaten the conditions and benefits of California SEIU members
May Day Rallies Against ICE Raids (tags)
In response to nationally coordinated raids conducted by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) the Coalition to Defend Immigrant Rights (CDIR) in Los Angeles will join the Press Conference of the newly formed Filipino American for Immigrant Rights (FAIR) and the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC) on April 26, 2008 and the May 1 Rally Immigrant Workers Day March-Rally in downtown Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, more recent ICE Raids More than 200 immigrants have been arrested in Los Angeles this month. On April 4, more than 60 Mexican and Korean workers were arrested by ICE in Torrance and in downtown LA.
The Healthcare Union War (tags)
Tensions between the California Nurses Association and SEIU escalate at the Labor Notes conference.
VERMONT AFL-CIO CALLS ON WORKERS TO SUPPORT WEST COAST SRIKE AGAINST WAR (tags)
The Executive Board of the Vermont AFL-CIO, representing thousands of workers in countless sectors across Vermont, have unanimously passed an historic resolution expressing their “unequivocal” support for the first US labor strike against the war in Iraq.
The Purple Punch-Out in Dearborn (tags)
SEIU-Backed Hotel Invasion
Open Letter to SEIU Members and Leaders on Violence at Labor Notes Conference (tags)
As SEIU members who attended the Labor Notes conference held on April 11-13, 2008 in Dearborn, Michigan, we denounce the attempts by SEIU International to violently disrupt a fundraising banquet on Saturday, April 12 attended by nearly one thousand labor activists from around the world who gathered to discuss ways to rebuild labor’s power.
AFL-CIO’s John J. Sweeney Fears “an American Nightmare!” (tags)
On April 8, 2008, John J. Sweeney said in Baltimore, MD, that the country is going down the tubes and dragging working class people with it. He’s the head of the national AFL-CIO. He added that in November: “We have an opportunity to reverse these awful trends.” On May 1, 2008, West coast dockworkers are calling a work stoppage to protest the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps, Mr. Sweeney will join them on the picket line. Stay tuned.
SEIU International Attacks Labor Gathering - Conference Goers Assaulted. (tags)
When you are trying to put the movement back into the labor movement, you’re going to meet resistance.
Time to Question the ICE Raids (tags)
Mayor Villaraigosa acts as if immigration raids on workplaces can be used to enforce wage and hour laws. They can't. If anything, they make it harder for workers to fight for their rights.
Recent raids at Warehouses (tags)
ICE raids aren't just about immigration - they are a collusion of right-wing forces that attack immigrants, working people, and ethnic communities.
Non-Profits, Privatization, and Capitalism (tags)
As soon as we begun organizing our workplace into a union— a drug and alcohol rehab center— the murky non-profit world proved to be an obstacle. When first approached, many of our coworkers asked the same question, “would a union even work at a non-profit”? And to this we normally answered, “why not?” – Although a better answer might have been, “Why do non-profit workers believe they should have less rights or pay than other workers?” And with this question you’ve opened a Pandora’s Box that leads down a series of questions and answers that reveal a lot about how modern society functions, especially the relationship between workers’ standard of living, non-profits, and the present state of the capitalist system itself. To help explain the gargantuan role that non-profits play in modern society, a book of essays about the subject -- cleverly named The Revolution Will Not be Funded-- was released by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. In its introduction chapter, the book explains how non-profits have evolved into organizations that divert political movements into dead ends, shape public opinion, and most relevant to this article, perform services previously done by the state.
San Diego Tips Decision Sparks Suit in NYC (tags)
The Starbucks decision in San Diego has spurred a lawsuit for baristas in New York.
National Petition to End Sweatshops and Slavery in the Fields (tags)
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) - an organization of low-wage workers based in Immokalee, Florida - has launched a national petition campaign to demand that Burger King and other food industry leaders work with the CIW to improve the wages & working conditions of the workers who pick their tomatoes, and join with the CIW in an industry-wide effort to eliminate modern-day slavery & human rights abuses from Florida's fields.
"The workers who have to sell themselves bit by bit are a commodity like every other commercial article." This quotation from the 1848 Communist Manifesto is an accurate description of the current system which is morally sick and lacks consensus.
Faith Based Groups Add Their Support to Prominent Union’s Platform for Change (tags)
Faith based organizations from across the country have lent their support to a California union’s fight to keep the labor movement democratic. United Healthcare Workers–West (UHW–West) is involved in a major dispute with its international union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) over member involvement and democracy. The UHW–West Executive Board, led by President Sal Rosselli, recently ratified a Platform for Change that outlines a strategy to build a democratic, member-run union with the mission of truly improving workers’ lives. The faith based groups supporting this effort believe that UHW-West’s platform is the best way to ensure that workers have a real voice in running their unions. “The absence of individual voice leads to a dictatorship, said Archbishop Eric Tan Ong Veloso. “That is the reason we support UHW-West leaders Sal Rosselli and Administrative Vice President Jay Valencia’s principled stand for the union and its members.”
Daily Bruin: AFSCME Workers Demand Rights (tags)
The ongoing struggle to get raises for UCLA service workers continues.
April 2008 Hollywood To The Docks (tags)
LA unions will be having a mass march from Hollywood to the LA docks to back workers who have contracts expiring this year.
For Workers Strikes Against the War! ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Against War (tags)
In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East.
Building Bridges Radio: NY : Cafeteria Workers Fed Up; Indian Guest Workers Revolt (tags)
WBAI's Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report presents this 28 minute radio program. TO LISTEN CLICK ON WEB LINK BELOW
Women Say Fund Caregiving Not War & Occupation (tags)
In Los Angeles, for the 9th Global Women’s Strike on International Women’s Day, March 8, women along with men supporters gathered at a town hall meeting entitled ‘Fund Caregiving Not War and Occupation!’ at the Southern California Library in South LA. On and around every March 8 since 2000, women in 60 countries have taken part in the Global Women’s Strike under the theme Invest in Caring not Killing. Women who are working to reclaim the money and other resources for crucial survival needs for themselves and their communities, told their stories and shared their struggles and victories.
USC Students Present University with 'College With(out) a Conscience Award' (tags)
USC Students to Put on Mock Award Show in Protest of Sweatshop Conditions in USC Apparel Factories
California People’s Organizations Supports SEIU-UHW West Platform For Change (tags)
A number of community organizations and key Asian Pacific Islander leaders in California unanimously thrown their unequivocal support for SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW-West) and its Platform for Change The UHW-West Executive Board representing 150,000 health care workers in California and led by its president Sal Roselli, recently ratified its Platform for Change to express its avowed principles for building a successful international union.
ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq, Afghanistan (tags)
In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. This is the first time in decades that an American union has decided to undertake industrial action against a U.S. war. The action announced by the powerful West Coast dock workers union, to stop work to stop the war, should be taken up by unions and labor organizations throughout the United States and internationally. And the purpose of such actions should be not to beg the bourgeois politicians whose hands are covered with blood, having voted for every war budget for six and a half years, but a show of strength of the working people who make this country run, and who can shut it down!
At the River I Stand: Black History Month Film Showing (tags)
This film shows how the determination of low-paid Black workers in 1968 in Memphis, Tenn. transformed a local labor dispute into a pivotal point in the civil rights and union movements.
Pakistani Elections: the mother of all frauds (tags)
Before the results had come in, President Musharraf appeared on the state-run Pakistan Television, calling the vote "the voice of the nation" and the "mother of elections" must be accepted. But in fact this was the Mother of all Frauds. The provisional results for the elections to the National Assembly, as of midday today (Tuesday 19th February) are as follows: Party Seats PPP 87 PML(N) 66 PML(Q) 38 MQM 19 ANP 10 BNP(A) 1 MMA 3 Others 34 Even by Pakistan standards this was a massive exercise in vote rigging. Overnight, the masses have been robbed of victory by the intriguers in Islamabad and Washington. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto immediately stirred the masses into action. If the elections had been held at that time, there would have been a landslide victory for the PPP. Nobody seriously doubts this. For that very reason the ruling clique, in agreement with the Americans, decided to postpone the elections.
Puerto Rico: All Out to Defend the Teachers’ Struggle! (tags)
We are on the threshold of a major class battle in Puerto Rico. Every day new preparations are announced for the coming strike of the Puerto Rican Teachers Federation (FMPR). With 42,000 members, a majority of them women, the FMPR represents almost all of Puerto Rico’s teachers and is by far the largest union on the island. The Shock Force of the Puerto Rican Police and National Guard are being readied to go after the strikers. The struggle of the Puerto Rican teachers affects everybody. The working class as a whole, students and parents, teachers and defenders of workers’ rights around the world must come out in defense of the FMPR! If there are mass arrests, the response must be massive blockades and spreading the struggle to the point of shutting the island down. In order to win this strike, it is necessary to prepare for a struggle not only of the teachers but within the whole workers movement against the pro-capitalist labor bureaucracy that sabotages the workers’ struggle. Above all, it is necessary to fight against illusions in and ties with bourgeois parties and politicians. It’s high time to begin building a revolutionary internationalist workers party.
West Coast Solidarity Meetings For "Freightliner Five" (tags)
There will be solidarity meetings for the fired UAW Freightliner N. Carolina workers in LA, SF, Portland and Seattle
Panama: SUNTRACS Worker martyred at protest (tags)
updates at blog
Local Filipinos protest Philippine Labor Secretary visit and B.C. government’s recruitment (tags)
Around 20 local progressive Filipinos and their supporters rallied last night outside an exclusive dinner for Philippine Secretary of Labour and Employment, Arturo Brion hosted by the Philippines-Canada Trade Council. Brion was in Vancouver to sign a new agreement with the B.C. government which seeks to attract 30,000 workers per year with specific skills from outside B.C.
Shocked by the Undercover Slaughterhouse Video? (tags)
HSUS' recent undercover investigation of a California slaughterhouse is making headlines around the world. Here are 5 things you can do to help end this kind of animal torture.
Orange County Board of Supervisors ignores plight of elderly and disabled; slashes wages f (tags)
Home care providers of the United Domestic Workers (UDW) Tuesday will rally outside the Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting, criticizing the Supervisors’ failure to negotiate a fair deal to provide home care providers for seniors, the blind and people living with disabilities a fair living wage. The home care workers are part of the In-Home Supportive Services program, an alternative to institutional care that uses state, county and federal funds to provide care for IHSS consumers.
Communist Party of the Philippines pursues a violent course against its left opponents (tags)
In the Philippines, one of the poorest countries in Asia, 40 percent of the people live in poverty. Conditions there have sparked a large radical movement, heavily repressed by the government.
Railroad workers unite ! (tags)
Organized labor in the U.S. is fast approaching a crossroads. The enormous successes of the past are under attack, putting the unions in a defensive position. Battling not only the companies but their own bureaucracy, the rank and file of various powerful unions find themselves facing extraordinary sell-out contracts approved by their “leadership,” but benefiting only the company. The struggle to defeat these sell-out contracts may well be the opening clashes of a revival of the U.S. labor movement, which has lain dormant for decades, but which by its very nature may lead to larger conflict. It is in this context that Amtrak workers have dealt a temporary blow to the trend of concession and showcased their growing political consciousness when, after bargaining for 8 years, a coalition of 10 Amtrak unions either rejected revolting tentative agreements that their union “leaders” had brokered with Amtrak, or refused to continue the seemingly now-pointless process of bargaining. This has put Amtrak workers on a collision course with management, i.e., the federal government. The creation of an “illegal” coalition of Amtrak unions to bargain – “illegal” because it violates the Railway Labor Act – was the first progressive step in increasing the power of the workers. Now nine unions are poised to strike Amtrak, and if it weren’t for a “Presidential Emergency Board” (PEB) that intervened, they’d be picketing already. The PEB – consisting of all Bush appointees – must now decide if every avenue of arbitration has been tried, when everyone already knows that it already has. The PEB was officially established on Dec. 1st, and in 60 days, if no agreement is reached, the parties will be free to act themselves. For the workers this will mean striking. For the bosses, this will mean imposing their terms of employment and destroying the gains of the past.
Laguna Beach Contractor Sued By State For Employee Rip-off (tags)
According to the AG “Interwall employed a sophisticated and heartless scheme, involving multiple businesses, to cheat its employees out of overtime and mandatory break periods
What Works and What Doesn't In Building A New Workers’ Movement (tags)
There are thousands of activists of one type or another who want to change society and recognize that we need a movement to do that. many of these people are in organizations and groupings, many are in Unions. What is causing the delay in the building of a new movement to throw back the present capitalist offensive. One major factor is the heads of Organized Labor, but they are not the only factor.
Justice for Young Filipina Restaurant Worker Adriane Padilla! (tags)
Recent advances in the Justice for Adriane Campaign, the unpaid wages campaign for young Filipina restaurant worker Adriane Padilla, launched last December 14, 2007, are pointing to a victory for Adriane and all Filipino youth restaurant workers. This January, Padilla and her lawyers agreed to meet with her former employers to explore a possible case settlement. Ugnayan welcomes this development to resolve the case as this could lead to a greater unity in the Filipino community towards promoting the labor rights, respect and justice for all Filipino youth restaurant workers.
Struggle Against Anti- Immigrant Laws and Discrimination- CDIR (tags)
The Coalition in Defense of Immigrant Rights (CDIR)-USA expresses deep concern that while the presidential campaign is going to its high gear, the anti- immigrant advocates are on the offensive. According to the CDIR, the anti-immigrant forces are trying to frame the Republican Party debates to focus on illegal immigration and some elements in different states are passing discriminatory laws against immigrants. Candidate Mitt Romney kept on calling the McCain proposal an “amnesty”. At the same time, the Democratic Party is quiet on the subject.
Picket line in New York City protests repression of striking miners in Cananea, MX (tags)
NEW YORK, 12 January -- The attack by over 800 state and federal police and Mexican army soldiers, aimed at dislodging striking miners from Cananea (Sonora state), was answered with a protest picket in New York. In front of the Mexican consulate, some 20 demonstrators proclaimed their solidarity with the mineworkers, who have been on strike since July 30 against terrible safety conditions at the Cananea complex and against government attacks on the workers.
Building Bridges Radio: Unregulated Work in the Global City (tags)
WBAI's Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report presents this 28 minute radio program. TO LISTEN CLICK ON INTERNET LINK BELOW
Tar Sands Processing requires massive inputs of water, energy, land, labour (tags)
For each barrel of oil produced from the tar sands, between two and 4.5 barrels of water is needed. The waste sand and water contain naphtha and paraffin, which are used in the extraction process, and oil leftovers like benzene, naphthenic acid and polyaromatic hydrocarbon, among others. Chemicals found in the tailing ponds are known to cause liver problems and brain hemorrhaging in mammals, and deformities and death in birds.
FCR-VC declaration against NAFTA and the Migra! (tags)
Today, January 1st 2008 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) enters its final stage of implementation. NAFTA, since its inception, was designed to help the rich U.S. Agriculture and Industrial Corporations take over the markets of Mexico and destroy the small farms and national industries. It has caused millions of displaced or unemployed Raza to move to the cities or migrate to what today is the United States and Canada.
Arizona treats Mexicans like Nazi Germany treated Jews (tags)
Arizona treats Mexicans like Nazi Germany treated the Jews
Galloway points finger at Musharaf... (tags)
"The professionalism of the assassination, the way in which the killer managed to get within pistol range of the opposition leader, the decoy "suicide bomb" story.. all point to the intelligence apparatus of the dictatorship being involved."
ICE Raids Used to Harm Union Organizing (tags)
The U.S. has a long history of using its forces and laws to put down Labor. In the late 1800s Pinkerton agents, paid by the DOJ, became famous for infiltrating the Molly Maguires. In the early 1900s, state militias and local police were used to break strikes by breaking heads.
Students and workers protest U.C.-hired contractor (tags)
People come out to the University of California Santa Barbara campus on December 3rd to support workers who remain unpaid by a contractor hired by U.C.S.B.
Workers Assassinated at the Thyssen Krupp Steel-works in Turin! (tags)
During the night of Thursday December 6 the latest in a tragic series of "industrial accidents" struck 7 proletarian families at the Thyssen Krupp steel-works of Turin (Italy): 7 workers were overcome and charred by flames in a section where metal castings are cooled by an oil bath. Antonio Schiavone, 36 years old, married and father of 3 children was incinerated immediately, while 3 other workers, after suffering critical burns, died a few days later.
The Gap and Black Friday (tags)
Building a New Global Movement The Observer's Dan McDougall described their garment shop as, "smeared with filth, corridors flooded with excrement from a flooded toilet." The workers recounted threats and beatings from management to keep their nimble fingers moving.
Filipino Workers Vow to Continue the Struggle (tags)
PHILIPPINES: Statements by the Workers Party (PM) & Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL)
Musharraf takes off his uniform: Pakistan enters a new phase of the class struggle (tags)
Events in Pakistan are moving fast. Yesterday General Musharraf quit as army chief, and was hastily sworn as president on the same day. The general hopes that in this way he will win respectability in the run-up to the election promised for January 8. This sets the stage for a big shift in Pakistan. The splits and conflicts at the top are providing a breach through which the accumulated discontent of the masses is thrusting itself forward. Events will then take on a logic of their own. The dictatorship has been brought to its knees by mass demonstrations and protests and by the intolerable contradictions that afflict Pakistan at all levels. As we predicted, the return of Benazir Bhutto brought millions of workers and peasants onto the streets. This is not thanks to, but in spite of, the policies and conduct of Benazir, who is an ally of US imperialism and until recently was attempting to reach a compromise with Musharraf.
Another CIA sponsored Coup D'Etat? Venezuela’s D-Day (tags)
Apart from the deep involvement of the US, the primary organization of the Venezuelan business elite (FEDECAMARAS), as well as all the major private television, radio and newspaper outlets have been engaged in a vicious fear and intimidation campaign. Food producers, wholesale and retail distributors have created artificial shortages of basic food items and have provoked large scale capital flight to sow chaos in the hopes of reaping a ‘no’ vote.
Hundreds of thousands of students march for Chavez and "yes" in the referendum (tags)
They came in their tens of thousands, in their hundreds of thousands. They came from schools, from colleges, from universities, from teachers' unions and trade unions, and from the Social Missions concerned with education. They came in their red shirts with different names but all saying the same thing, Si in the referendum. Here in Venezuela learning is on the order of the day. Everyone is studying in one way or another, everyone is a student, so they came in all ages. We gathered in the Plaza de Venezuela and as each minute passed we grew in numbers. In all parts of the gathering crowd there were sound systems belting out different rhythms and people were dancing, singing and shouting slogans. It was a carnival atmosphere with a serious message. The small group of students also dressed in red but with No placards quickly disappeared after having been confronted by revolutionary students shouting "No pasaran", they shall not pass. We moved off chanting slogans such as "Eduacion Primero para el hijo del obrero; Educacion después para el hijo del burgues" (Firstly, the children of workers should be educated and only then the children of the bourgeoisie), "Obreros y Estudiantes, Unidos en Combate" (Workers and Students united in Struggle) and very importantly "Alerta, Alerta, Alerta Camarada, Que ya esta Preparada la Resistencia Armada" (Watch out Comrades, Armed Resistance is Ready). As the slogans were shouted red flags were being waved.
"Solidarity Works!" Purple and Red Join Forces in Writers' Guild March (tags)
On Tuesday, November 20, the Writers Guild of America held a march on Hollywood Boulevard in which they invited their brothers and sisters in the labor movement to come out in support of their strike, now in its third week.
France: The workers must take the struggle into their own hands! (tags)
Seldom has trade-union unity been so great in the country: almost all the trade unions, including the most collaborationist, call for an indefinite strike at the SNCF, because of the determination and combativeness of the workers! But what objective does this united leadership set for the struggle to come? In 1995 the objective was clear: total withdrawal of the Prime Minister Juppé plan against the pensions. Today what is the objective of this trade-union unity? Total withdrawal of the new attack against the pensions?
Sensenbrener is at it agiain!-->HR4065 (tags)
Sensenbrenner, author of last year's draconian bill HR4437 plans to pass similar legislation, HR4065 with attatchments similar to that of the HR4437
The immiseration of the working class – Marx was right! (tags)
Just a couple of weeks ago, America's government tax collectors, the Internal Revenue Service, issued a new report. The IRS found that the richest 1% of Americans earned a record 21.2% of all income in 2005, up from 19% the year before. At the same time, the bottom 50% earned just 12.8% of all income in 2005, down from 13.4%. This was a record. IRS data only go back to 1986, but other academic research suggests that the last time wealthy Americans had such a high percentage of the national income was in the 1920s. And there's more. The IRS data show that the incomes of people right in the middle of all the income brackets (where half earn less and half earn more) fell 2% between 2000 and 2005 when adjusted for inflation, to $30,881. At the same time, the income level for the top 1% grew 3% to $364,657, or over ten times as much! This shows that capitalism is not only a breeder of economic crisis, war and waste, but is also a system of grotesque exploitation and injustice. When Marx wrote Das Kapital around 150 years ago, he argued that "pauperism (poverty) forms the condition of capitalist production and of the capitalist development of wealth... in proportion as capital accumulates, the situation of the worker, be his payment high or low, must grow worse".
Campesino Activist Assassinated in Brazil by Syngenta's Hired Thugs (tags)
Brazil's Movement of Landless Workers & La Via Campesinos activist camp attacked by hired assassins after protesting Syngenta's GMO/GE biotech crop monopolies..
McDonald's farmworker raise fought by growers (tags)
McDonald's Corp.'s high-profile deal to raise wages for Florida tomato pickers appears to have run into a major obstacle: Florida's tomato farmers.
Rumblings in the depths of the UAW (tags)
They still prevail but the contract rejections at Chrysler shook the UAW bureaucracy and the employers and are a glimpse of what is to come. And many of the new hires will likely be in the forefront of it.
The Myth of “Co-Management” in Venezuela: Reflections on Alcasa and Invepal (tags)
* With a lot of rhetoric and propaganda the Chavez administration has advanced different examples of co-management which, they claim, demonstrate their desire to transform Venezuela’s relations of production. A compañero from Europe visited us recently and got to know two of the most celebrated cases: Alcasa and Invepal. Here is the report he prepared for El Libertario # 51 about the actual working conditions in the country’s most “important” co-managed businesses.
UAW Sellout at GM and Chrysler (tags)
Corrupt UAW bosses sell out their rank and file
Retirement under capitalism (tags)
Sometimes small statistics can have huge implications. The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics recently reported that the age at which U.S. workers retire has risen for the first time in 100 years. According to the report, in the mid-1980s, 18 percent of people in their late 60s still had jobs; today, it is 29 percent. Millions of U.S. workers can no longer look forward to the “Golden Years” of guaranteed Social Security, Medicare health insurance and employer pensions. One in four baby boomers surveyed said they would likely never be able to retire – in other words, they will “work until they drop”. For those that do want to retire, the age at which they can do so is also being systematically raised. Workers born in 1960 or later must wait until age 67, rather than 65, to get their full Social Security benefits. There is talk of raising it further to 70. The mainstream media took scant notice of this, and for good reason; it’s a huge indicator of deeper processes that are destroying the standard of living of workers in the United States and internationally. A quick look into why workers are delaying retirement – if they have the “luxury” of retiring at all – points a condemning finger at the current state of international capitalism, while at the same time warning younger workers of the even worse conditions they’ll certainly face under the auspices of the capitalist system.
Is Dennis Kucinich an Alternative for U.S. Workers? (tags)
Millions of U.S. workers and youth have come to reject the inhuman conditions the crisis of capitalism is producing: the War on Iraq, the Katrina disaster, attacks on immigrants, stagnant wages, cuts in social services, the health care crisis, and on and on. On the basis of events, consciousness is changing, starting with the most advanced and active layer of the workers and youth, and is increasingly directed toward a break with the capitalist system and its representatives. It is in this context that Dennis Kucinich, a six time congressional incumbent from Ohio, who is now in his second run for U.S. president, has generated interest among those disaffected with the “business as usual” politicians. Kucinich presents himself as a “progressive alternative”, and to his credit he stands out favorably on many issues when compared to the rest of the mainstream candidates. He has been a vocal and consistent opponent of the War on Iraq from the very outset, calling for a full withdrawal of U.S. troops. He has said that if he wins the presidency, his “first acts in office will be to cancel NAFTA and the WTO”. He is also the only presidential candidate who openly opposes for-profit health care in favor of a national single-payer system.
kpfk local station board elections (tags)
i'm running for local station board. & looking for your support!
The Reconstruction Party: A New Political Development (tags)
There is a new political party on the horizon that is attempting to offer working class Blacks, working people in general, and the poor an alternative to the two capitalist parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. Stunned by how little has been done by either capitalist party for anyone who was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans – other than the rich and powerful – the Reconstruction Party was officially launched on September 2 of this year. As a first step, the Party is running Malcolm Suber for City Council in New Orleans. Suber is a former textile worker and auto worker and member of the UAW, and has been active in labor struggles since moving to New Orleans, especially around union organizing. He was a founding member and national organizer of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition, a broad coalition of grassroots groups organized around the demand for the reconstruction of New Orleans under community control. In part, this movement is a response to the ruthless policies implemented by the ruling class in New Orleans. Taking full advantage of the helpless situation of many working people, especially the Black majority of New Orleans, the capitalists have pressed to privatize everything, including schools, health care, and prisons, while at the same time preventing the vast majority of those who were forced to leave from returning to their homes.
Reviewing James Petras' "Rulers and Ruled in the US Empire" (tags)
An in-depth review of James Petras' important new book.
Documents describe human trafficking violations by DOD contractors in Iraq (tags)
With private security firm Blackwater USA under fire for its role in a recent shooting incident in Baghdad, new details are emerging about another problem involving contractors in Iraq: the working and living conditions of international laborers employed on U.S. government projects.
Building Bridges Radio:9/11 Health Reports Attacked; Unions Demand 911 Health Care Funds (tags)
WBAI's Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report presents this 29 minute radio program. TO LISTEN CLICK ON WEB LINK BELOW
More SOS Violence Against Workers (tags)
Save Our State, and now No More Invasion, always cry that they are the victims, but the facts tell us otherwise.(Photo is of SOS member Sam Ziselman)
Tranforming Capitalist Schooling (tags)
School is back. So are liberals and conservatives, bickering over how to preserve capitalist schooling. At issue is how to get beyond capital, its promises of perpetual war and meaningless jobs. How shall we keep our ideas, yet teach?
Government and business mock labor's day.
A MODEST LABOR PROPOSAL (tags)
COMMENTARY
LABOR DAY SCORECARD 2007 (tags)
COMMENTARY
The War on Working Americans - Part II (tags)
Part II of how American workers are losing out.
The War on Working Americans - Part I (tags)
Working Americans are losing out in the war waged against them.
The Coupon Clippers Get A History Lesson From One Of Their Own (tags)
Bourgeois theoreticians take measures to assure their class that the present crisis will pass. "Do not panic" is the message. Good times will return and the robbery can go on. Time for a history lesson.
New land of opportunity (tags)
Los Cabos rises as place to realize the Mexican dream
Watch- No Volveran - The Venezuelan Revolution Now online (tags)
Bolivarian Revolution
Sao Paulo (Brazil) is under a disguised dictatorship (tags)
It’s a disguised dictatorship, with press freedom, but no freedom for public demonstrations.
judas durazo hands elvira arellano over to bush's ice (tags)
mayday defense committee
Venezuela: Workers control under attack-Struggle at Sanitarios Maracay (tags)
workers control
"Continuous Operations" and "Elimination of Unit Breaks" Exposes ILWU (tags)
The "Continuous Operations" and "Elimination of Unit Breaks" agreement signed by Ugles & Co. of ILWU Local 19 Seattle exposes union officers as hypocrites in the fight for clean air in our port communities.
National call for action in Missoula MT (tags)
My name is Jim Squatter. I'm a medical marijuana advocate who has been active in the San Francisco Bay Area for decades. Recently, I came to Missoula MT, to carry on the struggle here.
Workers' Rights Violated by One of L.A.'s Largest Real Estate Developers (tags)
Lawsuit Filed Against Thomas Gilmore and Associates
Unprecedented Sell-Out by Ugles & Co. in ILWU Local 19, Seattle (tags)
Five months before organized West Coast longshore workers are set to begin bargaining for a new contract with the employers association, union officers in one ILWU local are already starting to give away some key historic gains of waterfront workers
'Old Europe' Bails Out Idiot-run Free-Market US Government - Again (tags)
Right now, the entire world's banking system is being pressed to the limit of what it can do to prevent a worldwide crash of the capitalist system due to what one European banker called "a complete evaporation of liquidity" [Source: "ECB reportedly weighs dollar swap with Fed", MarketWatch.com, 13 August, 2007]. In layman's terms, that means that the world's banking system is running out of the funds needed to keep the capitalist credit system running.
Mexico: Mobilisationcontinutes for the release of student activists (tags)
solidarity
Venezuela: The struggle for nationalisation continutes (tags)
Sanitarios Maracay
National "Sick of War" Sick Day (tags)
Workers Against War is proposing the date of October 26th, 2007 for the “Sick of War” sick day.
Camp Justice for Farmworkers Rights in Delano, CA (tags)
Farm workers gather at second Camp Justice event in Delano, CA to organize and share skills to fight poverty wages, pesticide exposure and other abuses faced daily by farm workers in CA's central valley..
The High Social Cost of Low Corporate Taxes (tags)
It is now taken for granted that social services in the U.S. will be under-funded – if they are funded at all. This isn’t because average people think that such things are unimportant, but because we’ve been taught by “our” representatives in government that even a miniscule social safety net is economically impossible (it is never explained why – it just is). As this approach continues to dominate mainstream political life, the living standards of working people everywhere are being destroyed, and the meager reforms politicians have always promised us have devolved into even tinier crumbs and counter-reforms. Indeed, reforms that benefit the working class seem to be impossible in Washington now-a-days, precisely at a time when the wealth of the country has never been greater. To make sense out of such irrationality, one has to consider that this issue isn’t limited to the 50 states of the U.S. – it’s an international problem, and its cause is no accident.
Building Bridges Radio: Barbara Ehrenreich Covering the Class War; I.W.W. vs Starbucks (tags)
WBAI'S Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report presents this 27.5 minute radio program. TO LISTEN CLICK ON WEB LINK BELOW
The Democratic Candidates on Health Care (tags)
The issue of health care is on the minds of millions of American workers. The crisis of the health care industry is well-documented in Michael Moore’s popular new film “SiCKO”. After two terms under Bush, many are looking to the Democrats as an alternative. Every Democrat running for President has a “health care plan” – but what exactly does this mean? Can any of these “liberal” representatives of the ruling class really offer American workers a way out of the disaster of private health insurance?
A Short Introduction to Marx's Das Kapital (tags)
Marx’s analysis of capitalism, unlike bourgeois accounts, is conducted from a historical perspective. In other words, Marx was keenly aware that during the march of history, one economic system, because of internal, irreconcilable contradictions, has been replaced by another until it too falls victim to similar contradictions. Of course, when one is born and matures within a single economy and lacks knowledge of any other system, one tends to take one’s own for granted, believing that it will persevere forever. A historical perspective has the advantage of forcing us to rise above the provincial perspective that assumes economic systems are eternal. We survey from above the vast array of systems that have played their fleeting role on history’s stage. For this reason, Marx’s analysis of capitalism is specifically written with the purpose of unveiling its inner contradictions so that the possibility of its demise stands boldly in relief. This runs directly opposed to bourgeois portrayals of capitalism as “natural” and hence as unalterable as the law of gravity itself.
Filipino workers slam Arroyo for its consistent failure to clip the jobs crisis (tags)
A dismal failure! This is the verdict of workers belonging to the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) as they slammed the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) administration ahead of her State of the Nation Address (SONA) for its consistent failure to clip the jobs crisis.
Confronting U.S. Empire: Reviewing Filipino American Insurgent Intellectual Production (tags)
This new intervention by internationally renowned Filipino scholar E. SAN JUAN, Jr. signals a renewed self-reflection by the Filipino American community and the entire diaspora of nearly 10 million Overseas Contract Workers.
Immigration Reform Is Needed, After Bush (tags)
Stewart Alexander, a presidential hopeful with the Peace and Freedom Party, says, “I believe Congress should work on comprehensive immigration reform after President Bush ends his term in office. I do not believe this important issue should be used as a political football or as a bandage for an administration that is hemorrhaging before the nation and the world.”
Is Barack Obama an Alternative for U.S. Workers? (tags)
After years of Bush’s open-ended war on working people at home and abroad, many on the “left” are desperate for an alternative. For many, that alternative is Barack Obama, a Democratic Senator from Illinois. Obama, who is very careful with his words and actions, has done a good job so far of portraying himself as a “sensible progressive”. However, far from being a “progressive” alternative, Obama is at his core a typical representative of the bosses’ political parties. Despite presenting himself as a candidate of “change”, Obama is a defender of capitalism and imperialism, and hence of exploitation and oppression. On all fundamentals, he is far closer to Bush than he is to being a genuine alternative for working people.
Again, Let the Immigration Debates Commence (tags)
Now that the Immigration Overhaul /Reform Bill or S.B. 1639 is being debated in the Senate, much emotions had been invested in the debate and a lot of sparks have flew and have lighted the dark night of the long wait. The LA Times today, June 26 hit the issue on the head: “ Conservatives continue to brand the legalization plan as amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants they say should be forced to go home. Religious groups have decried the weakened emphasis on family immigration. Immigrant-rights groups complain that temporary workers can never become citizens.
A backroom deal on trade? (tags)
Four bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs)--with Colombia, Peru, Panama and South Korea--are on the agenda this month for congressional approval, along with a June 30 deadline to reauthorize “trade promotion authority” (TPA) for George Bush. TPA, also known as “fast track” authority, allows the president to negotiate trade deals that Congress must either accept or reject, without amendment.
Chrysler, Globalization, and Labor's response (tags)
The UAW will confront Detroit auto makers at the bargaining table in July for a new national contract. In what will prove to be one of the UAW’s biggest challenges since the union’s birth, this contract will bear the imprint of the wholesale restructuring of the American auto industry. When Cerberus Capital Management paid $7.4 billion to take control of Chrysler on May 13, 2007, the challenge to the Union was official: “Are you ready to negotiate with a private equity firm which specializes in gutting troubled companies?” The UAW’s position on Chrysler will undoubtedly influence negotiations with General Motors and Ford. Cerberus wants to cut costs to make money off its investment. Contract talks open up a golden opportunity for the bosses to cut costs at the expense of the workers on the assembly lines. Cutting benefits which previous generations sacrificed, fought for and in some instances, died for, is what is at risk for auto workers in 2007.
Only Pressure on the Streets Can Advance the Struggle of Immigrant Workers (tags)
Negotiations in the U.S. Senate on immigration “reform” legislation have stalled. Is this a victory or a defeat for the working class? Despite the hypocritical tears of some national immigrant rights leaders who lament that “we lost a big opportunity”, in reality, this stagnation of the process reflects an equilibrium in the balance of forces between those who benefit from the most miserable exploitation of 12 million workers, and the interests and organizational strength of those workers and their allies. A detailed analysis of the proposal clearly reveals that this is an anti-immigrant “reform” which would increase the persecution of undocumented immigrants. This law would not improve the conditions of life of millions of families; on the contrary, it would make things worse.
Build a United Anti-War Movement (tags)
After weeks of political show-boating, the Democrats have voted to continue the war in Iraq. Without even the fig leaf of a time line for a partial withdrawal, they have appropriated over $100 billion more public dollars to continue the occupation of Iraq, condemning thousands more Americans and Iraqis to death and dismemberment. This is another $100 billion that will not be used to create jobs, provide health care, or build schools and affordable housing. The total spent on the war now totals over $556 billion. Even the richest nation on earth cannot afford this policy of “guns before butter” forever. Bush is completely discredited, with little popular support and virtually none of his infamous “political capital”. And still the Democrats caved on the one issue that has galvanized the entire country, the one issue that propelled them to Congressional power in the mid-term elections. The message in November was crystal clear: “end the war now!”
Letter to the international labour movement (tags)
On May 31, at 7:00 am, 150 police armed to the teeth invaded Cipla, a factory controlled by the workers, and "installed" an administrator appointed by the federal judge at the request of the INSS (Social Security). The management elected by the workers along with other selected workers were expelled or prevented from entering the plant. Armed terror has been imposed in the factory. One of the first measures taken by the administrator was to cover with a black canvas the plaque at the entrance of the factory which said: "CIPLA, company controlled by the workers." A marvelous national and international compaign demanding the end of the intervention at Cipla was launched just a few hours after the Federal Police carried out their war operations. Messages began to arrive to the Lula government and the Minister of Justice, Tarso Genro, who is responsible for the Federal Police and Luis Marinho, Minister of Social Security, from whose ministry the request for the intervention in Cipla came. Messages were also sent to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Carlos Lupi. This strong and immediate reaction gave us the strength and energy to organize the resistance against these riduculous events.
Election Fraud and Violence in the Philippines Exposed at the Annual RP Independence Day (tags)
Sining Pandayan or "forging art" in Filipino is the multi-generational, multi-sectoral cultural group comprised of workers, women, immigrant and second-generation youth, students, young professionals, and LGBTQ, mainly from DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association and Ugnayan ng mga Anak ng Bayan. Sining Pandayan uses various cultural and expressive means such as poetry, music and street theater to project issues of the Filipino people, both in the homefront and locally.
Building Bridges Radio:Immigration Debate and Day Care Union Busting in NYC (tags)
WBAI's Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report presents this 28 minute radio program. TO LISTEN CLICK ON WEB LINK BELOW
Double Victory For Bally Casino Workers (tags)
Dealers, Security Officers at Bally's Casinos In Atlantic City Vote for Union Representation
KMP-Negros revive calls to scrap ‘flawed’ agrarian reform law (tags)
With the recent death of two farmer beneficiaries and the wounding of several others in Hacienda Velez-Malaga, La Castellana town, Negros Occidental, calls for the scrapping of the “flawed” agrarian reform law has been revived. Claiming that it has not benefited poor farmers but consolidated the stronghold of big landowners, militant groups’ Kilu sang Mang bubukid Pilipinas-Negros, Pamalakaya, and the biggest labor group in the sugar industry, the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), slammed the “fake” CARP law and will oppose plans to extend it. The three groups also condemned the killing of the two members of Task Force Ma palad (TFM) last Monday saying this shows a “glaring failure” of CARP. However, they also criticized TFM for giving “false hopes” to their members in owning land.
Capitalist Globalization and the "middle-class" (tags)
Since the 1970s, the social consequences of the current period of capitalism (commonly referred to as globalization) have primarily affected the working class, especially those in manufacturing jobs. Despite the consequential deterioration of large cities and countless smaller towns — not to mention the pauperization of large segments of the population — the effects were dismissed by politicians and the mainstream media as necessary evils. The victims of this process were told to pick themselves up by their boot-straps, go back to school, and learn to integrate into the new, technology-driven global economy. How things have changed! Experience has exposed all the promises of globalization to be lies, and now those who think of themselves as "middle-class" are finding themselves on the chopping block. These skilled workers — engineers, Information Technology workers, accountants, legal and medical personnel, etc. — are confronted by the combined forces of a shrinking labor market, outsourcing, and the corporate-led importation of foreign workers through the H-1B visa program.
USLAW/UFPJ Sponsor Pro-Occupation Iraq Labor Speaker in LA (tags)