Class Struggle

Seattle Labor Solidarity Forum Disruption

2012-01-18T14:01:00.001-05:00

On January 6, 2012, a labor solidarity forum called by Occupy Seattle was held to support Longview, WA International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 21 in its battle against union-busting by the giant EGT consortium. The event drew more than 200 people to the Labor Temple in downtown Seattle and featured four ILWU speakers. However, a couple dozen right-wing bureaucrats and hangers-on from the Seattle, Tacoma and Portland ILWU locals physically disrupted the meeting with yelling, pushing, shoving and punches, in attempt to prevent its democratic functioning. The speakers and many in the audience made clear that these bureaucratic thugs did not represent the ranks of labor by chanting "ILWU, ILWU" against the disrupters. The meeting ended with an appeal for all supporters of labor rights to come to Longview to protest the expected arrival of a ship to load the scab grain.

Nigeria Paralyzed by 'Occupy' Protests over Gas Prices (TIME)

2012-01-10T22:06:00.005-05:00

By GILLIAN PARKER / ABUJA | Time.com

Oil-rich Nigeria ground to a halt Monday amid mass demonstrations and strikes protesting a government decision to end billions of dollars in fuel subsidies that saw pump prices double overnight. At least 20 people were wounded and at least three demonstrators were reportedly killed as police opened fire on protests in the country's business capital, Lagos, as well as in the largest northern city, Kano. Witnesses said police also attacked protesters with batons and tear gas overnight in the capital, Abuja. Banks, airports, gas stations and markets were closed throughout the country on Monday as streets in some of Africa's largest cities, normally blocked solid by traffic, were quiet but for the sound of protests. The violence against protesters comes in a security climate already clouded by mounting Muslim-Christian tensions that have seen an upsurge of sectarian violence in the north.

The demonstrations mark the start of what is expected to be a drawn-out battle that protest organizers have called Occupy Nigeria, adopting the brand name franchised by the Wall Street protests against economic inequality. But while the fuel-price hikes -- and their knock-on inflationary effect on the cost of food, power, telecommunications and other essentials -- may impoverish poorer Nigerians in the short term, government economists say ending subsidies is essential to the long-term prospects of reducing poverty. The subsidy cut has become the acid test of whether or not President Goodluck Jonathan will succeed in his effort to reform the economy of Africa's most populous country, and one of its most corrupt. (Read "Nigeria's Christmas Bombings Herald Muslim-Christian Conflict.")

Nigeria's economic plight, as well as the failure of its political leadership, is encapsulated by the fact that despite being Africa's largest producer of crude oil (ranked fifth among suppliers to the U.S.), it relies on imports for almost all of its own gasoline requirements. The ineptitude and corruption of successive governments has allowed Nigeria's own refineries to rot: funds allocated for maintenance and upgrades have gone missing, not least because annual subsidies to make imported fuel affordable -- which amounted to $8 billion in 2011 -- have earned fortunes for politically connected fuel importers, while killing off any incentive to regenerate domestic refining capacity. Almost all of the 2 million barrels a day of crude oil pumped in Nigeria is exported, while four domestic refineries operate at less than 25% capacity, according to industry estimates. And crime is rife: militants, state officials, army officers and others all siphon off crude oil to sell on the black market, while imported fuel is smuggled out of Nigeria and sold to countries where, without subsidies, fuel is three times the price. (See photos of the two sides of Lagos.)

But for many ordinary Nigerians, the import subsidy amounts to the only tangible benefit from their country's oil wealth, and they've previously fought -- and won -- battles to prevent its removal. Jonathan vows that this time, however, the government will not back down. "If I were in your shoes at this moment, I probably would have reacted in the same manner," he said in a speech on Saturday. But reform, and the fight against corruption, must take priority, he said, adding he would use the money saved to improve Nigeria's decaying infrastructure. "The deregulation policy is the strongest measure to tackle this challenge in downstream sector." As a gesture to skeptics, who say his administration is no less corrupt and self-aggrandizing than its predecessors, he also pledged to reduce salaries of all politicians in the executive branch, which exceed their counterparts in the U.S., by 25%.

Many Nigerians agree with Jonathan's diagnosis of Nigeria's problems but question his methods. "How can you ask people to tighten their belts when you run an obese system?" asked one protester via Twitter. Many believe money saved from the handout withdrawal will go straight into government coffers. "The politicians are using the money from oil to enrich themselves instead of rebuilding our country," said protester John Paul from Benue state in the southeast. "They are talking of building a new refinery, but our current refineries do not even work. They should fight corruption, not the fuel subsidy." Gbenga Bojuwomi, a member of the Youth Reformation Group Nigeria, added: "Why does everything boil down to the masses? Why should we suffer for the mistakes of the government?" At least for now, the credibility of Jonathan's presidency rests on whether Nigerians accept his answers to those questions.

Drive to Execute Mumia Halted [PDC]

2012-01-07T00:02:00.001-05:00

Drive to Execute Mumia Halted

Mumia is Innocent—Free Him Now!

    On December 7, the Philadelphia District Attorney announced that he will not seek another death sentence for Mumia Abu-Jamal, America’s foremost class-war prisoner. The announcement by D.A. Seth Williams comes in the wake of the October 11 U.S. Supreme Court decision rejecting the D.A.’s petition to reinstate the death sentence that was overturned in 2001. This means Mumia, framed up for the killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981, will be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. While it is welcome that Mumia will no longer be under the threat of state execution, it is an abomination that this innocent man, who has already spent 30 years entombed, is condemned to a living death in prison!

    The government’s drive to execute Mumia has run aground, but the vendetta of the prosecution, cops and capitalist politicians, both Democratic and Republican, against Mumia continues. There is a mountain of evidence, including Arnold Beverly’s confession that he shot and killed Faulkner, that demonstrates Mumia is an innocent man who should never have spent one day in prison. The courts have refused to consider this evidence because it exposes Mumia’s frame-up as not just some aberration of a rogue cop or a bad judge, but the result of the workings of a whole “justice” system whose real purpose is the repression of workers, minorities and the poor on behalf of the capitalist rulers (see the July 2006 Partisan Defense Committee pamphlet, The Fight to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal—Mumia Is Innocent!).

    Beginning in the late 1960s, Mumia was targeted by the police and FBI as a Black Panther leader and later as a MOVE supporter and journalist renowned for his searing exposés of cop brutality and racist oppression. The prosecution railroaded Mumia to death row in 1982, building its case on the basis of phony ballistics and other manufactured “evidence,” a “confession” concocted by cops and prosecutors, massive police intimidation of witnesses and racist jury rigging. His trial was overseen by “hanging judge” Albert Sabo, who was overheard saying he would help the prosecution “fry the n----r.” To secure the death sentence, prosecutors pointed to political statements made by Mumia as a 16-year-old Panther.
In December 2001, federal judge William Yohn overturned Mumia’s death sentence as unconstitutional based on improper jury instructions while simultaneously upholding every aspect of the 1982 frame-up conviction. As for the Supreme Court, its 2009 denial of Mumia’s petition essentially put an end to his legal efforts to overturn his conviction on constitutional grounds.

    During the decades of his unjust imprisonment, Mumia has remained unbowed, speaking out for the oppressed and the impoverished through his death row commentaries. Mumia’s cause has been an international focal point of the fight for abolition of the death penalty, which in the U.S. is the legacy of black chattel slavery and represents the pinnacle of state terror. When Mumia faced a death warrant in the summer of 1995, massive publicity about his case and worldwide protests that were endorsed by trade unions representing hundreds of thousands of workers played a crucial role in staying the executioner’s hand.
Now the state authorities hope with the latest decision that Mumia’s cause will be forgotten and that he will rot in prison hell until he dies. This must not be Mumia’s fate. As the Spartacist League and Partisan Defense Committee have always insisted, fighters for Mumia’s freedom must look to link his cause to the class struggles of the multiracial proletariat. Trade unionists, opponents of the racist death penalty and fighters for black rights must continue the fight to free Mumia from the racist dungeons of Pennsylvania and to abolish the racist death penalty.

Partisan Defense Committee
10 December 2011

Marx Reloaded Trailer

2011-08-14T14:42:00.001-04:00

Marx.Reloaded = http://www.marxreloaded.com

... Which Pill Will You Take? ...

RAP NEWS 7: #Revolution spreads to America (with John Pilger & Glenn Beck)

2011-07-18T22:26:00.000-04:00

Defend Libya Against Imperialist Attack! Defeat U.S./U.N./NATO Assault! [IG/LFI]

2011-03-20T22:35:00.000-04:00

Defeat the Monarchist/Islamist Opposition, Cat’s Paw for the U.S.! For Workers Revolution Against Qaddafi Police State!

MARCH 18 – Last night the United Nations Security Council voted by 10-0 (with Russia, China, Germany, Brazil and India abstaining) to launch military action against Libya in the guise of “protecting civilians.” After weeks of the Western media churning out war propaganda and liberals clamoring for “humanitarian” intervention, the U.N. issued a declaration of imperialist war. The alleged “humanitarian” concerns are the same kind of smokescreen used to justify the U.S./NATO attack on Yugoslavia in 1995 and 1999, as well as the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, supposedly (among other pretexts) to defend the Kurds and Shiites. The “no fly zone” and air strikes to bomb Libyan forces authorized by the Security Council resolution represent a major shift from what was a civil war between the brutal bourgeois Qaddafi regime in Tripoli and a monarchist/Islamist/pro-imperialist opposition in Benghazi. Now, in the face of the U.N. action and giving no political support to Qaddafi, revolutionaries and all opponents of imperialism are duty-bound to defend Libya while calling for the defeat of the U.S./U.N./NATO attackers.

Libya, a former Italian colony and then British protectorate, is a semi-colonial country under attack. Imperialist forces covet it for geostrategic reasons – vast high-quality oil deposits and key Mediterranean/African location – and wish to get rid of Muammar Qaddafi, with whom U.S. rulers have had an on-again, off-again feud for decades. Recently the Libyan leader had been cooperating with the U.S. “war on terror” against Islamists who also threatened his rule. But with popular uprisings and unrest sweeping the Near East and North Africa, Qaddafi’s CIA-backed opponents evidently figured this was a good opportunity to get rid of the erratic strongman who has sometimes been a thorn in Washington’s side. The result is the latest case of “humanitarian” imperialist aggression. Recall how the U.S. used the Haitian earthquake of January 2010 to occupy the hard-hit Caribbean island country. For poor and working people, imperialist occupation is always a greater evil. We don’t call on the U.S., U.N. and NATO to “aid the people” – they don’t and won’t – we demand they get the hell out, and stay out!

The situation in Libya is notably different from that in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and elsewhere in the Near East where there have been mass plebeian uprisings for democratic rights against U.S.-backed dictatorships. In Libya, the initial protests were called by exile opposition groups tied to the CIA. In the ensuing civil war pitting Qaddafi’s Islamic-populist regime against a motley crew of monarchist, Islamist and pro-imperialist bourgeois forces along with some of Qaddafi’s own bloodiest (now former) henchmen, proletarian revolutionaries had no side. But with the U.N. vote, the rebels are now cat’s paws of imperialist forces, and we call for their defeat and for defense of Libya. At the same time, we continue to be for a revolution of the Libyan working people and oppressed groups (such as the Berbers) to bring down Qaddafi, denouncing not only his police-state repression but also his repeated collaboration with U.S. (and Italian and French) imperialism whenever he has been given a chance.

The fight against the imperialist assault on Libya is not limited to the North African country. Egyptian workers should oppose the imperialist invasion by blocking U.S. warships from transiting the Suez Canal. Tunisian workers should stop NATO warships from docking. In Bahrain, instead of appealing to the U.S. for aid, as protesters have been doing, any genuinely democratic overturn would not only bring down the U.S.-allied Sunni monarchy which has long oppressed the overwhelmingly Shiite population, but would also drive out the U.S. naval and air bases which are the linchpin for the imperialists’ operations in the Arab/Persian Gulf, as part of international workers revolution from the oil fields of eastern Arabia to the factories of Iran.

Much of the social-democratic left in the United States and internationally (including the International Socialist Organization and Socialist Alternative in the U.S., the Socialist Workers Party and Socialist Appeal in Britain and their satellites) have been cheerleading for a supposed Libyan “revolution,” taking up the rhetoric of U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton and more generally supporting the Libyan bourgeois opposition. Now they are in a pretty pickle as the U.S. and UK governments (with the support of the Labour Party “opposition”) launch military action supposedly aiding these same rebels. Other reformist leftists of a Stalinoid bent (such as Workers World Party and the Party for Socialism and Liberation) have historically hailed Qaddafi, making the Libyan leader out to be some kind of anti-imperialist – forcing them into a mealy-mouthed position due to Qaddafi’s more recent alliance with Washington.

While the social democrats sport the Libyan monarchist red-black-and-green with a crescent and star in support of the rebels fighting for a pro-imperialist bankers’ and Islamists’ government, and the fornlorn Qaddafi apologists of yesteryear halfheartedly raise the green flag of Islamic populism (and crony capitalism), the communists of League for the Fourth International fight under the red flag to smash imperialism through international socialist revolution.

[Read the original article at the Internationalist Group site]

Wisconsin Unions Vote to Prepare a General Strike – The Time to Act Is Now [IG/LFI]

2011-02-26T13:30:00.003-05:00

Report from Madison: “We’re Making History”

Wisconsin Unions Vote to Prepare a General Strike – The Time to Act Is Now

Union demonstrators outside the Wisconsin state Capitol in Madison protesting union-busting bill. (Photo: Eric Thayer/Getty Images)

MADISON, Wisconsin, February 22 – After the mammoth turnout for the pro-labor march on Saturday, union-busting governor Scott Walker hoped they would just dribble away. No such luck. This mobilization has staying power: thousands came out amid the sleet, slush and freezing rain on Sunday, followed by the now-standard twice-daily demonstrations on Monday despite bitter cold. And as the labor protests continue, there is beginning to be discussion of a key element that has been missing so far: strike action. More particularly, a general strike. This could have a dramatic impact in Ohio and throughout the country.

Most of the action on Sunday (February 20) was indoors, but it was impressive to see groups of four or five hardy souls, and sometimes just one or two, slogging away, circling the Capitol building all day long with their signs. They were determined to make their voices heard. About 11 a.m. a family drove up in a station wagon and vats of hot cider, to pass out to the demonstrators. They weren’t union members but come from a “strong labor family,” and figured they would do their bit. It was sure welcome.

In the middle of the soggy day, we ran across a young couple with a sign, “This Is What Class Warfare Looks Like.” That was quite striking after all the chants of “This is what democracy looks like.” They’re from Rice Lake in northern Wisconsin, about half-way between Eau Claire and Superior, and had driven 250 miles to Madison show their opposition to the attack on the unions. Actually, they had come down on Wednesday, the day after the de facto occupation of the Capitol started. Back in Rice Lake that day, they heard, there was a protest of several hundred students, teachers and others. So they headed back north to be there on Thursday, when over 1,000 protested in the streets (out of a total population of 8,000). Then on Friday it was back to Madison. That takes real dedication, and they’re not alone.

This gives the lie to Walker’s claim that people in small-town Wisconsin are with him, and it’s only a bunch of Mad Town liberals and out-of-staters causing trouble in the capital. It confirms the conclusion from yesterday, that the Tea Party right-wingers are vastly outnumbered. Working people all across the state are up in arms over his assault on labor, and way up in Rice Lake people know what’s what.

[Read the complete article at the Internationalist Group site]

Egypt: Mubarak Gone, Workers to Power! [IG/LFI]

2011-02-15T14:17:00.007-05:00

Worker Mobilization Brought Down “Pharaoh,”
But U.S.-Backed Army Junta Grabs Power

Egypt: Mubarak Gone, Workers to Power!

Suez Canal workers strike on February 9 demanding ouster of company chairman (an admiral), pay increase and social equality. Strike wave by Egyptian workers finally forced out Mubarak. (Photo: AP)

End the Siege of Gaza – Open the Border Now!
Block U.S. Warships from Suez Canal!
For a Socialist Federation of the Near East!

On February 11, the Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak was ousted after 30 years in power. After 18 days of continuous protests by hundreds of thousands of Egyptians, and two days after strikes swept across the country, the hated dictator departed. The streets of Cairo, Alexandria and other cities exploded in joy. Upwards of 2 million people streamed into Maidan al-Tahrir (Liberation Square) to celebrate. Fireworks exploded overhead, youth danced on burned-out armored personnel carriers. The slogan “The people want the regime to fall,” borrowed from Tunisia, became, “The people, at last, have brought down the regime.”

This is at best a partial truth, at worst a deadly illusion. The determined mass protests, courageously resisting and throwing back every bloody assault by the regime, played a vital role in forcing Mubarak out. The workers mobilization was what finally triggered his downfall. But although the despotic Raïs (Leader) is gone, the army-based regime that has lorded it over Egypt for more than half a century remains. Talk of “democracy” under the dictatorship of capital, particularly in semi-colonial countries like Egypt, is a lie. The ouster of Pharaoh, as the Egyptian president was unaffectionately known, must lead to workers revolution if autocratic rule is to be swept away.

Demonstrators remarked over and over that for the first time they were proud to be Egyptian. They wanted to honor the more than 300 martyrs who were killed by the regime in the recent mobilizations: their blood was not shed in vain. But beyond the pride in having brought down the despot, we must look at the hard facts:

* The huge repressive apparatus is intact: The notorious Central Security Force which viciously beat demonstrators is still in place. The Republican Guard, in charge of protecting the government, is still in place. The 2 million-strong National Police as well as the army of police spies, squads of baltagi (regime-paid rent-a-thugs) and legions of torturers are still in place.

* While government media have begun to wobble, and Law 100 giving the state control of union elections was recently annulled by restive justices, the gigantic apparatus of the corporatist regime – including the National Democratic Party, the official Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) and other state organizations that controlled every aspect of Egyptian life – is still intact.

* The 30-year-old national emergency law is still in place, and the military is in no hurry to remove it. The army command is unchanged: The head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which now holds the reins of power, is Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, referred to by junior officers (according to U.S. cables released by WikiLeaks) as “Mubarak’s poodle.”

* The sinister longtime intelligence chief and short-lived “vice president,” Omar Suleiman, who was in charge of the “extraordinary renditions” of CIA prisoners to Egypt’s dungeons, is still around. Praised by Israeli leaders and popular with U.S. officials because he was “not squeamish” about things like torture, Suleiman messed up Washington’s “orderly transition” by openly asserting on a TV talk show that the Egyptian people lacked a “culture of democracy.”

[Read the complete article at the Internationalist Group site]

Egyptian Revolution Must Be Kept Alive

2011-02-14T00:42:00.002-05:00

Down with the "Emergency Law"!
Free all the Political Prisoners!

(from of Egyptian gas workers on strike taken from www.arabawy.org)

The Egyptian revolution shook off the dictator Hosni Mubarak but has yet to rid itself of the dictatorship. In place of Mubarak, decrees are now being made by his lifelong friend and head of the Egyptian military, General Mohamed el-Tantawi. As the Guardian reported, a leaked embassy cable dated March 2008 noted that both Tantawi and Mubarak were "focused on regime stability and maintaining the status quo through the end of their time."

But working and poor Egyptians are fed-up with the status quo and have their own plans. In the aftermath of Mubarak's overthrow many of them expect their social demands for employment and higher wages met, while in addition others demand justice for those killed and injured by state forces these last weeks.

During the "Day of Rage" on January 28, wrote the Daily News Egypt, "angry protesters stripped the police chief and his deputy of all their clothes ... leaving them naked in the street." Now thousands of citizens in Suez declare they will resume protesting Monday if their demands of sacking the governor and the police directorate chief, believed to have given orders to the police to open fire on protesters on January 25, are not met." Talaat Omar, head of Al-Ghad Party in Suez, declared that "angry citizens vowed to kill the two men if they appear in the city … as they are responsible for killing dozens and injuring hundreds.”

In Nasr City, thousands of workers from several oil and gas companies are on strike and protesting in front of the Ministry of Petroleum. Their economic and political demands, according to Arabawy, include "a halt to abusive management practices in terms of sackings, the reinstatement of the sacked workers, raising salaries that roughly average on LE400, establishing an independent union, impeaching the corrupt minister Sameh Fahmy, and stopping gas exports to Israel."

But the Supreme Military Council, having declared the revolution completed, wants it all to stop. Military Council leader Tantawi ordered Mohamed Ibrahim Moustafa Ali, the head of military police, to send soldiers into Tahrir Square to explain the situation by tearing down the tents and lashing peaceful protesters with sticks, reports the Independent. Shalkami, one of the so-called "hardcore" protesters who refuses to leave until a timetable of reform is drawn up has not left the Square in nearly three weeks. He has survived attacks by the police, pro-Mubarak thugs on camels, and now the army was taking its turn to try and force him out. Shalkami, according to the Guardian, declared that the unfinished revolution must be kept "alive so that we get the 100% freedom we are asking for."

He is among those pressing for a civilian-led interim government and the immediate lifting of the dictatorial emergency laws, which permit detention without trial. The Independent reported that Shalkami along with other protesters in the square had held a small rally with demands for, in addition to the lifting of the emergency law, the release of all political prisoners. The military command has responded by declaring that the state of emergency will be lifted "when the security situation allows." In other words, the "emergency" will be deemed over when and if the army is able to break all resistance to its rule by decree. Another Tahrir demonstrator, Adel el-Ghendy, a 54-year-old building contractor, demanded a "civilian government" and accused the military of wanting to "steal our revolution."

Regardless of how exhausted they must be, the Egyptian people appear to have plenty of fight left in them. In response to the army's attack on the hundreds left at Tahrir Square, a call for help went out "over loudspeakers and via text message and social media." According to the Guardian, as result of the call, more than 1,000 people had arrived by the afternoon. Of these more than 30 were arrested and taken to a military compound at the nearby Egyptian museum. Free all the political prisoners now!

The Higher Military Council has also said all meetings by workers are banned, effectively forbidding strikes. It is a life and death question for the emerging independent labor movement in Egypt to defend its right to strike and organize. In addition to these attacks on freedom of organization, the regime has been busy reaffirming all previous international treaties.

The one group that was receiving a hearing from the military regime is the police officers. “We want to honor the officers who died during the revolution,” officer Mohamed Hussein told Daily News Egypt. “We keep hearing about the civilians who died, but what about the policemen?” Many other cops complained that "people treated them badly after the revolution." In addition to wanting better treatment from the revolution and positive recognition of those in their ranks who died while carrying out the murderous repression of the revolutionaries, the police also demanded higher wages.

The new military command was happy to oblige. Its high command Tantawi had already discussed with Interior Minister Mahmoud Wagdy the importance of a rapid return to duty of the police. So that when police began to protest outside the Interior Minister's building in Cairo, the Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, asserting that his top priority was restoration of order, had the new Interior Minister Mahmoud Wagdy quickly put together concessions which included a pay raise for the police.

While some Egyptians may have bought into the dangerous lie that the police are fellow workers, many more were not fooled. As reported by the BBC, on Sunday morning before the tent city had been torn down by the military, at one point the protesting cops entered Tahrir Square and chanted: "It's a new Egypt, the people and the police are one." Hundreds of protesters chanted back the popular anti-Mubarak chant "Get out, get out!"

Although the tent city may have been torn down and the military refuses to listen to the demands of the protestors, the Guardian noted that the story is still unfolding and reported that a "victory celebration is planned for Tahrir Square on Friday at which organisers of the protests plan to announce a 'council of trustees.'" What is needed instead is a worker led struggle for a constituent assembly as well as an all out struggle to build the independent organizations of the working class.

Down with the Dictatorial Emergency Laws!

Release all the Political Prisoners NOW!

Fight for a Revolutionary Constituent Assembly and the Right to Organize Independent Workers Organizations!

Fight for a Revolutionary Constituent Assembly in Egypt

2011-02-12T17:14:00.000-05:00

The fall of Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak under the intense pressure of the fed up Egyptian masses has embolden the most downtrodden sectors of Egyptian society while still leaving power in the hands of the military.

The strikes that Egyptian workers have carried out to meet their social demands for better jobs and higher pay in recent years have fueled the unrest that toppled Mubarak on Friday. But though Mubarak is gone, Egyptians finds themselves in a situation where the military is in power and expected to bring democracy by organizing elections. The military is not a vehicle for democracy. Its primary concern is with maintaining order and stability so that the daily operations of capitalism are not disturbed. Meanwhile, the workers are more interested in radically improved social conditions than order. The task therefore is to link the social demands of the working class with the widespread sentiment for democracy and the way to do that is through the call for a revolutionary constituent assembly.

Side by side with the call for a revolutionary constituent assembly is the need to break the workers away from the corporatist (state-controlled) "unions," and build independent unions that embrace workers throughout Egypt. So that workers can utilize the calls for a revolutionary constituent assembly to put forth its own class interest and fight against the capitalists, it will be required to construct a revolutionary workers party that can pave the way for the overthrow of capitalist relations and the establishment of a collectivized planned economy and a workers democracy.

From The Transitional Program Of The Fourth International (1938):

"It is impossible merely to reject the democratic program; it is imperative that in the struggle the masses outgrow it. The slogan for a National (or Constituent) Assembly preserves its full force for such countries as China or India. This slogan must be indissolubly tied up with the problem of national liberation and agrarian reform. As a primary step, the workers must be armed with this democratic program. Only they will be able to summon and unite the farmers. On the basis of the revolutionary democratic program, it is necessary to oppose the workers to the “national” bourgeoisie. Then, at a certain stage in the mobilization of the masses under the slogans of revolutionary democracy, soviets can and should arise."

CSEW in NYC school closings protests

2011-02-10T22:26:00.001-05:00

Class Struggle Education Workers in demonstrations and hearings to protest school closings in New York City, January-February 2011.

"You're so smug. You have a mayoral dictatorship and think you can do whatever you want: ignore the feelings of the people of this city at your peril." CSEW spokesperson Marjorie Stamberg

For more information check out the blog of the Class Struggle Education Workers

February 8: An International Labor Solidarity Day with the Egyptian Revolution

2011-02-06T02:19:00.001-05:00

February 8, 2011

An Action Day.. An International Labor Solidarity Day

With the Egyptian Revolution

CTUWS, February 5, 2011: The ITUC General Council in its meeting in Brussels yesterday, has decided to choose the day "February 8" to be a Solidarity Day of the Trade unions With the Egyptian Revolution, by organizing "Labor demonstrations" in front of the Egyptian Embassies by "Labor Confederations" around the world, and presenting a letter of the concerns of trade unions to the Egyptian Ambassadors which expresses Solidarity with the Egyptians' Demonstrators, demanding democratic transition in Egypt as soon as possible, and ensuring no impunity for the people responsible for the killings, assaults and intimidation of innocent people.

The Confederation Letter which will be presented by demonstrations Organizers at the Egyptian Embassies on February 8, will confirm their solidarities with the Egyptian Workers who have initiate establishing their independent trade union, and struggle for their demands.

The Confederation Letter confirms the importance of the workers right to establish their union freely, and Egypt's commitment to the International treaties and the commitment to Democratic Rights of Workers.

Mass Revolts Against U.S.-Backed Arab Dictators

2011-02-05T23:24:00.001-05:00

Egypt, Tunisia: Turn Popular Uprisings into Workers Revolution

An aging dictator toppled in Tunisia, another is tottering in Egypt: North Africa and the Near East are in turmoil, Washington is worried, Wall Street has the jitters. The world’s eyes are glued on Cairo as battles rage back and forth in the squares of the Egyptian capital and on the bridges across the Nile. With U.S. troops still occupying Iraq and bogged down in a losing war in Afghanistan, suddenly a new spectre is shaking the imperialist world order: revolution by the wage slaves held down by the modern pharaohs. But even the fall of Arab satraps of the U.S. empire will not bring democracy for the downtrodden and oppressed masses until the stranglehold of imperialism is broken. The key is to forge a revolutionary leadership to mobilize the working masses in the struggle to bring down the dictatorship of capital.

For almost a month, unemployed youth and workers in Tunisia demonstrated and struck against police terror. Then on the evening of January 14, only a few hours after thousands of protesters braved police clubs and tear gas in the streets of the capital, Tunis, word spread from cellphone to cellphone that President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali had fled to Saudi Arabia. Signs calling for “Ben Ali dégage” (get lost) were replaced by one proclaiming (in English), “Game Over.” In 27 days of protest, they had driven out the tyrant who had ruled Tunisia with an iron fist for 23 years. More than 200 were killed by the regime, but the paralyzing spell of fear of repression was broken. The news raced across North Africa and the Near East at Internet speed: for the first time ever in this region dominated by imperialist-backed regimes, an Arab autocrat had been brought down by the Arab street. Presidents, kings, sheiks and emirs worried that “Tunisian fever” could spread. Millions of their long-suffering subjects hoped it would.

[Read the complete article at the Internationalist Group site]

Explosive Leaks Provide Image of War from Those Fighting It

2010-07-25T21:51:00.000-04:00

In an unprecedented development, close to 92,000 classified documents pertaining to the war in Afghanistan have been leaked. SPIEGEL, the New York Times and the Guardian have analyzed the raft of mostly classified documents. The war logs expose the true scale of the Western military deployment -- and the problems beleaguering Germany's Bundeswehr in the Hindu Kush.

A total of 91,731 reports from United States military databanks relating to the war in Afghanistan are to be made publicly available on the Internet. Never before has it been possible to compare the reality on the battlefield in such a detailed manner with what the US Army propaganda machinery is propagating. WikiLeaks plans to post the documents, most of which are classified, on its website.

Britain's Guardian newspaper, the New York Times and SPIEGEL have all vetted the material and compared the data with independent reports. All three media sources have concluded that the documents are authentic and provide an unvarnished image of the war in Afghanistan -- from the perspective of the soldiers who are fighting it.

[Read the complete article at Der Spiegel]

More than 120 arrested at S.F. hotel protest

2010-07-23T01:28:00.000-04:00

The following is taken from the San Francisco Chronicle.

John King, Chronicle Staff Writer

The 300 block of Stockton Street was closed for an hour while hotel workers and their sympathizers protested outside the Grand Hyatt San Francisco. The union representing the workers, Unite Here Local 2, is at an impasse in contract negotiations with the Hyatt hotel chain.

The march from Market Street to the hotel - and the demonstrators' refusal to leave the pavement despite orders from police - was part of a nationwide action in 15 cities by hotel workers against Hyatt. When police called on the protesters to disperse shortly before 6 p.m., many sat down in the street instead.

Between 120 and 150 people were arrested and taken to a nearby police station, where they were released after being cited for blocking the streets, according to Officer Samson Chan of the San Francisco Police Department.

A smaller rally outside the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara led to 10 arrests.

Same-sex marriage legalized in Argentina

2010-07-15T13:00:00.001-04:00

Police officers try to separate supporters of the proposal to legalize same-sex marriage from demonstrators who are against the bill in Buenos Aires on Wednesday. (Natacha Pisarenko/Associated Press)

Argentina legalized same-sex marriage Thursday, becoming the first country in Latin America to declare that gays and lesbians have all the legal rights, responsibilities and protections that marriage brings to heterosexual couples.

After a marathon debate in Argentina's senate, 33 lawmakers voted in favor, 27 against and three abstained in a vote that ended after 4 a.m. local time.

Since the lower house already approved it and President Cristina Fernandez is a strong supporter, it becomes law as soon as it is published in the official bulletin, which should happen within days.

[Read the complete article at CBC News]

Police Charged in Post-Katrina Shootings and Cover-Up

2010-07-13T23:04:00.002-04:00

Details of coldblooded murder and attempted murder perpetrated by New Orleans police has emerged as a result of the trial against the cops, as reported by Campbell Robertson for the New York Times (Tuesday July 13).

Six New Orleans cops have been charged in connection with the Sept. 4, 2005 killing of 17-year-old James Brissette and the wounding of four members of his family, as well as the shooting to death of Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old man with severe mental disabilities, in the back as he tried to flee.

This story, the most high-profile, forms part of a bigger untold story that has the racist New Orleans police department and local government collaborating to terrorize the poor residents, mostly Black, of New Orleans, which had already been left to die by the federal government, as they fled from the man-made flood, caused by a combination of hurricane Katrina and the decades long willful neglect of the levees, that destroyed homes, killed many people, and forced countless more into a desperate struggle for survival.

The article goes on to report these “ghastlier than many in the city had expected” details:

“Responding to a call that the police were under fire, officers drove to the bridge over the Industrial Canal in eastern New Orleans in a Budget rental truck. Some were armed with assault rifles, others with a shotgun or a semiautomatic pistol.

Mr. Brissette and five members of the Bartholomew family were walking across the bridge to get food and other supplies from a supermarket, the indictment reads, when the officers opened fire. Four members of the Bartholomew family were shot. Susan Bartholomew, at the time 38, lost part of her arm; her husband, Leonard Bartholomew III, was shot in the head. Mr. Brissette, who was killed, was shot seven times.

Some officers then traveled to the other side of the bridge and found two brothers, Ronald and Lance Madison, who were on their way to check on a dentist’s office that belonged to their oldest brother, Dr. Romell Madison. According to the indictment, Mr. Faulcon then shot Ronald Madison to death with a shotgun. Afterward, it continues, Sergeant Bowen kicked and stomped on Mr. Madison as he lay dying on the ground.”

Lance Madison, after witnessing his brother's murder by police, is arrested and held on eight tramped up counts of attempted murder only to be released after three weeks in custody, with charges dropped.

The cops, along with Sgt. Arthur Kaufman and former Sgt. Gerard Dugue, both homicide detectives assigned to investigate the shootings, consequently engaged in a cover-up, which the New York Times itself describes as “methodical and blatant”, adding that the court indictment against the cover-up “recounts a scene in the abandoned Seventh District police station where, it says, Sergeant Kaufman and Mr. Dugue met with other officers to ensure that their stories were consistent. Sergeant Kaufman is also accused of creating fictional witnesses and planting a pistol at the scene of the shootings."

Obama's ‘Silent Raids’ on Undocumented Workers

2010-07-10T14:57:00.003-04:00

Obama's ‘Silent Raids’ are the subject of Julia Preston's article in the New York Times (Saturday July 10th): "The Obama administration has replaced immigration raids at factories and farms with a quieter enforcement strategy: sending federal agents to scour companies’ records for illegal immigrant workers. While the sweeps of the past commonly led to the deportation of such workers, the “silent raids,” as employers call the audits, usually result in the workers being fired, but in many cases they are not deported."

Aimed at economically starving workers, these audits, according to the same article, "reach more companies than the work-site roundups of the administration of President George W. Bush."

Cited in particular is the case of Gebbers Farms, the center of company town of orchard laborers (population 2,100), forced by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to fire its undocumented workers. Included among the terrible consequences of Obama's anti-immigrant “silent raids” on the lives of these workers, is the fact that many were given three months to move out of houses they rented from the company.

Gebbers Farms has applied to the federal guest worker program to import about 1,200 temporary workers. Guest workers are to be shipped in from countries like Mexico and Jamaica, exploited for up to six months, and then shipped back. But as for the former Gebbers Farms workers, they've been left houseless and jobless, fending for their lives and that of their families.

Maria Cervantes is a former Gebbers Farms employee

Hands off WikiLeaks!

2010-07-09T23:46:00.001-04:00

Defend PFC Bradley Manning!

On July 6, the U.S. military announced that charges have been filed against Private First Class Bradley Manning for allegedly leaking classified material – in particular providing the (in)famous “Collateral Murder” video to the investigative website WikiLeaks. PFC Manning, a military intelligence analyst, has been held since some time toward the end of May by the U.S. Central Command at a military base in Kuwait. The video shows U.S. helicopter gunships cold-bloodedly gunning down two reporters and other civilians, first aid responders and children in Baghdad in 2007. Its release provoked a storm of outrage worldwide, and it has by now been seen by millions of viewers on the Internet. The “hacker” who fingered Private Manning to the Army brass, Adrian Lamo, also alleges that Manning claimed to have passed on video of a massacre of some 125 civilians by U.S. forces near Garani, Afghanistan in May 2009.

The Pentagon claims that in addition, Manning released some 150,000 State Department cables. WikiLeaks denies that it has the diplomatic cables, but says it is preparing to release the video of the Garani massacre (for background on this case of mass murder, see our article, “Defeat U.S. War on Afghanistan and Iraq,” The Internationalist No. 30, November-December 2009). While refusing on principle to name its sources or confirm whether Manning is one, WikiLeaks has retained U.S. civilian lawyers for him. However, the military has not allowed them to contact their client. Manning’s friends and the government informant Lamo say that he was suffering a crisis of conscience over the conduct of the U.S. war, read “horrifying” contents of secret U.S. diplomatic correspondence, and wanted to spark “debate” and “reform.”

[Read the complete article at the Internationalist Group site]

We'll Remember Oscar Grant III: No Justice in the Capitalist Courts!

2010-07-09T17:25:00.000-04:00

Jesse McKinley, for the New York Times (Friday July 9th), reports that dozens of arrests were made late Thursday and early Friday, as the Oakland, California police used riot gear and a heavy presence to disperse the mobs of angry protesters, which smashed storefronts, set fires and stampeded through city streets whenever officers surged to make arrests.

The protest actions began hours after a white transit officer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, a slap in the wrist, which means the killer cop will face, at maximum, only four years in prison, for the execution style shooting death of unarmed young black man, Oscar Grant III, on Jan. 1, 2009.

The Racist Cop Shooting of Unarmed Oscar Grant III as Caught on Video

U.S. Imperialism Hands off Costa Rica!

2010-07-07T17:49:00.000-04:00

The following is an emergency press released put out by La Liga de la Revolución Socialista (Costa Rica). English translation by Craig Abernethy.

US soldiers, get out of Costa Rica (Emergency press release)

On the night of June 29, the entry into the country of 46 US warships with the ability to transport 200 military helicopters, among which are included the SH-60, HH-60B, and Black Hawk gunships, as well as CH-46 helicopters and AV-8B Harrier aircraft, was approved in the Legislative Assembly. Together with this arsenal, permission was given for 7,000 US soldiers to be able to "enjoy freedom of movement and the right to carry out activities they consider necessary in the fulfillment of their mission," under the assumption that their aim is to support the struggle against drug trafficking, and to offer humanitarian aid and build schools.

This military penetration of the country only corresponds to the US plans of militarization (led by Obama), the aim of which is put what they consider their backyard under complete control, before possible social upheavals, while they continue taking positions in alliance with, and with the complete backing of the local governments, as has already been observed with the deployments begun in Mexico, that they are attempting to spread to South America, everything in the best style of the rehearsal they carried out with the occupation of Haiti during the catastrophe of the earthquake, beside the blue helmets [troops] of the UN and in the context of a world capitalist crisis, which continues unresolved.

Precisely the government of Laura Chinchilla, together with businessmen, sees in this pact the possibility of streamlining the repression and the crushing of any type of workers' and popular struggle or demonstration, by complementing the function of the police at a time when they have introduced the Public Employment Law, together with pressures for approving big labor reforms in the private sector, as well as reducing the budget of the public universities, and the plans for privatization, as in the case of the docks and electric power.

The whole media bombardment about the presence of chiefs and members of the drug cartels (whose main points of support are the governments of the United States and Colombia) pursues leveling the road to this new military interference, and it complements the repressive laws that had been approved, like the Anti-terrorist Law, all directed at the repression of workers, students and the rest of the groups of the people.

From the Liga de la Revolución Socialista, we are making an urgent appeal to all organizations connected with the workers' and popular movement, with all the means at their disposal, to raise a big campaign that will serve to condemn and overthrow this virtual military occupation. We urge the men and women comrades of the workers' and socialist left, and independents inside the UCR, to begin to organize and set up this campaign at every school and workplace inside the university beside the struggle for the budget.

Down with the pacts and laws that conceal military penetration of the region under the sham of fighting drug trafficking!

No US military presence in Costa Rica, Latin America, or any region of the world!

Children beaten by Bangladeshi police as they join garment workers' strike

2010-07-01T00:34:00.001-04:00

A Bangladeshi policeman appears to be about to hit a child during clashes with garment workers in Dhaka. Photograph: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images

Jason Burke in Delhi, for the Guardian News UK (Wednesday June 30th), reports on police repression of strikes, including children in Bangladesh. The article begins:

Police in Bangladesh using bamboo staves, teargas and water cannon fought with textile workers demanding back pay and an immediate rise in monthly wages on the streets of Dhaka today.

Witnesses said at least 30 people, mainly workers producing garments for global brands, were injured. Pictures showed children apparently being beaten. Ten policemen were also hurt.

Although there has been violence for several weeks, today saw workers erecting barricades, pelting police with stones and attacking cars. Police described the fighting as the worst yet seen.

[Read the complete article at the Guardian News site]

The Third Depression

2010-06-28T04:00:00.000-04:00

In his latest (Sunday June 27th) Op-Ed piece, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman warns of a long global depression.

Krugman writes, "We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost — to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs — will nonetheless be immense."

Oakland Picket Blocks Israeli Ship!

2010-06-23T00:44:00.002-04:00

Mass picket of hundreds on the Oakland docks blocked the unloading of Israeli ZIM line ship June 20.

For International Workers Solidarity Action to Defend the Palestinians

JUNE 21 – Yesterday mass pickets at the Port of Oakland (California) blocked the unloading of an Israeli ship, the ZIM Shenhen. They were protesting the May 31 Israeli massacre of activists aboard a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. More than 800 demonstrators showed up before dawn at Pier 58 for the day shift picket lasting from 5:30 until 9:30 a.m. Demonstrators chanted, “Free, free Palestine – Don’t cross the picket line,” and “An injury to one is an injury to all – the Israeli apartheid wall will fall.” Longshoremen refused to cross the line, and after management demanded an immediate arbitration ruling, the arbitrator sided with the workers. Hundreds of protesters returned for the evening shift, but by then the company had given up on calling in a shift. So the picketers succeeded in blocking the unloading of the Zim Lines freighter for 24 hours. This is the first time an Israeli ship was blocked in a U.S. port, and gives a big boost to efforts for international workers actions against the murderous Zionist regime.

[Read the complete article at the Internationalist Group site]

Obama, Democrats Spearhead Teacher-Bashing, Union-Busting Corporate Education "Reform"

2010-06-22T16:25:00.001-04:00

By Class Struggle Education Workers/UFT

Break with the Democrats, Oust the Bureaucrats–

Build a Class-Struggle Workers Party!

Public schools, teachers and teacher unions are under attack across the country. Billionaires like Bill Gates and Eli Broad want to tie teacher pay to student test scores. State legislatures take aim at teacher tenure and seniority. Hedge fund operators fund semi-privatized “charter schools.” Corporate lobbies like the Business Roundtable and the National Center on Education and the Economy call to end high school at the tenth grade. University students are hit with huge tuition hikes. Schools are closed in minority areas, teachers are threatened with mass layoffs and pay freezes.

We’re facing a full-scale capitalist assault on public education. It’s not just here in New York, billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg and his schools chancellor Joel Klein are not the only enemies. The war on public education is taking place across the country, and the bottom line is: Barack Obama and the Democratic Party are leading the charge. Until educators and labor militants are prepared to take on these teacher-bashers and union-busters politically, to break with the Democrats and oust the pro-capitalist bureaucrats with a class-struggle leadership, every remaining job protection is at risk.

[Read the complete article at the Class Struggle Education Workers site]