Workers Fight Pro-Boss Union Hacks over Hospital Jobs, Wages

PHILADELPHIA, PA, September 24 — Today Local 1199C members marched around Jefferson Hospital and then several blocks to the headquarters of Aramark, a subcontractor famous for low wages. A few years ago Aramark took over management of Jefferson’s environmental services, dietary and transportation departments. The march protested the attacks on jobs, wages and working conditions by Aramark and Jefferson itself. A protest letter written by a Jefferson worker was delivered to the Aramark bosses.
One strength of the march was that it was organized by a group of rank-and-file union delegates and that almost two hundred workers responded despite some organizational problems. The workers were angry and enthusiastic. Energy was high as we marched around the hospital and even more electric as we marched into the lobby of Aramark’s headquarters.

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Attack in Nairobi Masks Kenya’s Slaughter of Somalis

Since October 2011, when Kenyan military forces were deployed in Somalia, there have been dozens of terrorist attacks in Kenya: shootings, grenades, explosives. More than a hundred people have been killed and hundreds more injured. In the most recent attack, on the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi, at least 61 people were killed, hundreds were injured and 71 are still missing. As usual, workers are caught in the middle and we grieve with all those who lost families and friends. As in the World Trade Center attack in September 2011, the Westgate assault was directed at symbols of wealth but took the lives of many working-class people.

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Professors and Staff: ‘Hands Off Our Students’

The Professional Staff Congress (PSC) Delegate Assembly unanimously passed a resolution in support of students after watching a video showing several NYPD cops holding a man down on the ground while another repeatedly kidney punched him. Two City University (CUNY) students then addressed delegates and seven hundred dollars was collected toward the legal expenses of the six people arrested.

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Bangladesh: 200,000 Garment Strikers Shock Rulers

DHAKA, BANGLADESH, September 28 — “We will not hesitate to do anything to realize our demands…The economy moves with our toil,” declared Nazma Akter, the woman who is among the leaders of 200,000 mostly women workers who struck hundreds of the country’s garment factories demanding the tripling of their monthly minimum wage from $38 to $104. (Reuters, 9/23) As if to give substance to her declaration, workers from ten factories in the city of Savar attacked a military base, seizing rifles and ammunition and injuring five para-military Guards (ACA News, 9/22).
 “One hundred dollars is the minimum we have asked for,” one striker told Agency France Press (9/23). “A worker needs much more than that to lead a decent life.”

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France: Steelworkers Mock Bosses’ Socialist Prez

FLORANGE, FRANCE, September 26 — Workers waving trade union flags jeered French president François Hollande when he came to the Florange steelworks today. Workers also demonstrated their bitterness in front of the ArcelorMittal Steel Corporation offices.

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Pizzeria’s Foul Taste of Sexism, Poverty Wages

Worcester, MA,  September 19 — Members and friends of PLP, and many workers from an unemployed workers’ organization held a rally outside of Harry’s Pizzeria.
The workers here are fighting back against physical assaults, sexual harassment, and poverty wages.
In March of 2013 the manager at the restaurant struck a worker on the job. When the worker filed a battery complaint, the bosses’ court dismissed it.  A woman worker filed a separate complaint against the restaurant for sexual harassment from the bosses.
The workers from the area took our flyers and agreed that something should be done to stop the injustices.  The working class needs communism to take the bosses out of the driver’s seat of society.  Only then will these attacks on the working class be ended.

Petraeus, Pathways, Jobs — Same Enemy, Same Fight

NEW YORK CITY, September 30 — Nearly 400 workers and students rallied in front of the Board of Trustees meeting at Baruch College today. We attacked our local enemy, the trustees who are responsible for hiring general David Petraeus, raising students’ tuition, decreasing services on campus, and forcing professors and staff to work to petty wages and under fascistic control of their departments and curriculum.
The Professional Staff Congress (PSC) union for the workers of the City University of New York (CUNY) had called a protest, demanding the trustees respond to the no-confidence in Pathways and the workers’ lack of a contract for the past three years. Pathways is the racist common core of this public university system that went into effect this semester. It is an assembly-line style curriculum that limits what professors can teach, lowers the standards for these working-class students, saves the administration loads of money. Pathways is a crisis-ridden curriculum for a system in crisis.

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Vets, Workers, Students Blast ROTC’s Return on Campus

 NEW YORK CITY, SEPTEMBER 24 — Today vigorous opposition to Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) filled the auditorium at the College of Staten Island (CSI) campus of the City University of New York (CUNY), where the Administration had been forced by anti-ROTC faculty to call a Town Hall meeting. CUNY administrators are determined to impose ROTC on this campus as well as at York and City Colleges. ROTC was thrown out of CUNY during the protests against the Vietnam War and has been gone since 1971.
A growing movement of students and faculty against the militarization of CUNY has targeted the administration for trying to bring back ROTC as well as for hiring former general and CIA director David Petraeus to teach at the elitist Macaulay “Honors” College. At the Town Hall meeting, among the dozen CSI faculty or staff who spoke, not a single one supported ROTC. PL’ers in this movement believe that we need to link the concepts of fascism and imperialism to understand the current militarization of universities (see box).

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A Tribute to Comrade Knut Langsetmo

A strong, quiet man, Knut Langsetmo preferred deeds to unnecessary words. He was only two days away from this 60th birthday. He was a dedicated friend to many and a beloved comrade. Knut was a scientist and a communist, a scholar and a warrior. Born in Norway, Knut grew up in Minnesota. Although a talented student and swimmer, he chose to work as a truck driver for several years after high school. This experience helped develop his anti-racist, pro-working class political consciousness, as well as the grit and work-ethic that made him a successful scientist.
In his mid-twenties, Knut enrolled at the University of Minnesota to study biology, eventually earning a PhD. It was here that he met the International Committee Against Racism and the Progressive Labor Party, beginning a lifelong commitment to organizing for an egalitarian society.  He also joined the National Guard to win GIs away from serving the U.S. war machines.

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Putin-Obama Deal A Killer for Workers

For the international working class, the moves by Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin to rid Syria of chemical weapons ring hollow. Neither capitalist front man honestly seeks to end the slaughter of our sisters and brothers there. Even if chemical weapons were to be eliminated — a dubious outcome — the war in Syria will not end. Many more workers will still die. Already, two million people have been forced to flee their homes. More than two million live in extreme poverty, on less than $2 per person per day.
Obama and Putin do not care about these workers or about the 1,400 who reportedly were killed in last month’s gas attacks. Both of these imperialist stooges are exploiting the attacks to gain leverage in a rivalry headed towards a far more deadly global war. Obama tried to use the gas attacks as an opportunity to launch sophisticated missiles and kill still more workers while proving yet again that the U.S. can unleash massive military force anywhere on earth. An unmatched capacity for killing underpins the U.S. global empire. It assures protection to allies and clients and destruction to enemies.

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