Christie BridgeGate Scandal: Rulers Need Discipline for 2016 Election

NEW JERSEY, January 29 — There’s more than meets the eye in the public exposé and slapdown of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over his closing lanes on the George Washington Bridge to create chaos as payback to local politicians who opposed his re-election. And the “more” is not just the continuing revelations of withholding Sandy aid funds and other dirty tricks.
It would be easy for workers and students who have been on the receiving end of Christie’s budget hatchet, or his disgusting thuggery towards anyone who seriously challenges him, to simply be thankful that “what goes around comes around” or even to be gleeful over his troubles. But communists and others who fight the capitalist system that Christie and all other politicians serve owe the working class more than this superficial response.

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Working-Class Mothers Fight Chicago Bosses for a New ‘La Casita’

CHICAGO, January 15 — On December 6, nine of the last 17 protestors, who tried to save the Whittier Elementary School field house — endearingly called La Casita — were found not guilty of trespassing charges instituted by the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Applause rang out in the normally quiet West Side courtroom after the charges were dismissed.
These community fighters and Chicago Public School teachers were charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass after they formed a human chain outside the field house last August 17 trying to stop its demolition. The protestors made sure the moms were not arrested that day.

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Lenin: A Giant Revolutionary

January 21 was the 90th anniversary of the death of Vladimir Lenin.
Lenin was his revolutionary name. His birth name was Vladimir Il’ich Ulyanov. Lenin was perhaps the greatest revolutionary who has ever lived. We still have a great deal to learn from him. Certainly he is one of the giants, along with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, pioneers of communist thought. They exposed the basic contradictions between capitalism and the working class.
Other great revolutionaries have come from the working class; Stalin was one. Lenin came from the petty bourgeoisie. They showed that, in the last analysis, what counts for every individual is his or her ideology, and what he or she decides to dedicate their lives to.
Like Marx and Engels, his great teachers and models, Lenin dedicated his life to the exploited and oppressed of the world, the working class first of all, but also the peasantry and those super-exploited by colonialism and racism.
We should study Lenin’s works — critically, of course. But respectfully too, since we have much to learn. Hard to do: be both critical and respectful. It’s something we have to learn to do better.
Lenin represented a whole movement, and an entire historical epoch. He did nothing “by himself.” At the same time, he pushed the working-class struggle for communism ahead by his tireless efforts.
We, and class-conscious workers, intellectuals, students, and others everywhere, owe him an immense debt. The best way to acknowledge that debt is by working for communist revolution the best we can.

Syria: Centuries of Repression, Division and Exploitation

Syrian workers have suffered from tyrannical oppression long before the current war between opposing capitalist, nationalist forces. For centuries they have been exploited by colonial and imperialist masters, or by homegrown dictators controlled by external powers. But like other workers in the Middle East, working class in Syria has yet to build a revolutionary movement that could lead them to a better life. Time and again, it has been manipulated by local and international rulers — from Turkey and France to Russia, Iran, and China today. As a result, the history of Syria is one of religious and ethnic divisions, with workers fighting workers against their own best interests.

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Workers’ Support For Oil Wars Fading — Capitalist Carnage in Iraq

The growing carnage in Iraq — 8,868 workers slaughtered in 2013 (Washington Post, 1/12) — is the result of the U.S. invasion that has left the country in ruins. This is typical of all wars under capitalism. In the current era, U.S. imperialism has become the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. In Iraq it has killed and displaced millions since 1991. They are the victims not of “sectarian violence,” but of the inter-imperialist rivalry for control over energy resources.

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France: Goodyear, Gov’t Gang-up: Workers Occupy Plant, Seize Bosses

AMIENS, January 14 — Facing the mass layoff of all 1,173 workers, over 200 invaded the Goodyear tire plant here on January 6 and held two senior bosses captive in an attempt to force negotiations for huge severance pay before the closing of the plant. They rolled giant farm-tractor wheels in to block the room holding the bosses. The enraged workers then set off a huge bonfire of tires at the plant and vowed to occupy it until demands were met. They are occupying the factory and blocking a warehouse containing 240,000 tires worth hundreds of millions of euros.

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Palestine: Mass Protests Help Free Militant Fighter

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Issawiyeh, December 28 — PL’ers came to show solidarity with the released Palestinian political prisoner, Samer Tariq Issawi. Issawi, a left-wing Palestinian fighter. He was first arrested in 2002 under allegations of manufacturing bombs and firing on Israeli citizens, and was convicted of membership in an illegal organization, possession of explosives, and attempted murder based on very flimsy evidence. He was sentenced to 26 years in prison. In October 2011, he was released in the deal between Israel and Hamas for the release of the Israeli POW Gilad Shalit, held by Hamas.
However, in July 2012, Issawi was arrested once more for violating the (very strict) terms of his release, sentenced to eight more months in prison and threatened with the re-activation of his old jail sentence, which would put him behind bars for almost two more decades. In response, he went on an intermittant hunger strike, between August 2012 and April 2013, demanding his release.

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School Bus Strikers Slam Union Misleaders

NEW YORK CITY, December 26 — “How can you have people with 35 years on the job get fired, while they hire somebody off the streets? It’s not fair, it’s not right.” That’s what a woman school bus driver with 26 years on the job had to say as she and more than 100 of her co-workers picketed outside their union hall, demanding the resignation of their union president. As Mayor de Blasio starts negotiating contracts for 300,000 city workers, today’s rally is an opening shot in what can be a major antiracist struggle against this capitalist state.

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Boeing’s Economic Blackmail Shackles Workers

SEATTLE, January 3 — Today, 30,000 Boeing workers, members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) Lodge 751, voted to give away pensions for new hires and to let Boeing freeze their own pension plans in 2016. The contract, not due to expire until 2016, will now be extended to 2024.
This is a major step in the growth of fascism, where the bosses rule through force and terror. Boeing used politicians of both parties and the union leaders to strip away 70 years of collective bargaining and economic gains. They do this partly because they can, but mostly to meet growing challenges from competing international imperialist powers.

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CAMBODIA: Garment Workers on the Move

CAMBODIA, January 15 — Garment workers here have shut down more than 500 factories. On Friday, January 3, hundreds of workers blocked a road leading out of the capital city of Phnom Penh, burnt tires and refused to back down from the police. They are demanding doubling of the minimum wage to $160 a month.
More than half a million garment workers, mostly young women, are on strike here, where international retailers have flocked in search of cheaply produced clothing. Cambodian bosses export more than $5 billion of apparel a year, from which the workers receive a tiny fraction. The Cambodian minimum wage is only $80 a month, and working conditions are abysmal.

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