Fight for Working-Class Culture

NEW YORK CITY — In early February, while the sky was bleak and the air cold, some 60 workers and youth assembled to participate in the development of working-class culture. The work of the last three years culminated in the gathering of six seminal groups to explore creating different forms of working-class art — video, script writing, acting, music, poster design and poetry.
An initial plenary session discussed basic ideas over breakfast after which people moved to their chosen areas of interest. Expectations pervaded.  Most of the six leaders wondered if this first exploratory session could create groups from which some working-class communist forms could be developed.

Click to read more ...

Bosses’ Law Ransacks Workers’ Pension

OAKLAND, CA — The ruling class, through its politicians and the collaboration of union leaders in California, has moved to steal billions from the working class by decimating the future of retired workers.  Governor Jerry Brown, with the assistance of Democrats who control both houses of the legislature, has passed the Public Employees Pension Reform Act (PEPRA). It could go into effect at AC Transit as early as July 1, when our contract expires.
This “reform” hurts new hires immediately. While current workers don’t face changes yet, after 2018 all of our pensions will be affected. First, PEPRA mandates that all new workers pay a minimum of half their pension costs or 6.75% of wages. That’s a wage cut of $3,000 to $5,000 a year. AC Transit workers took lower wages in the past to maintain their benefits.

Click to read more ...

France: Strikers Paralyze Peugeot, Put Brakes on Plant Closure

AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, FRANCE, March 9 — Over 2,800 striking auto workers have paralyzed the Peugeot plant in this Paris suburb since January 16. They’re protesting company plans to close the factory next year, which will eliminate 8,000 jobs. On March 8, nearly 200 strikers occupied the Paris offices of the bosses’ metal trades association.
“We are workers, we aren’t vandals, the bosses are the vandals,” chanted the workers in the hall of the seat of the metal trades bosses.
 “We’re not coming out until our demands have been heard,” one union steward told Reuters. “We want a permanent job for everyone and early retirement for those 55 and over.”
An agreement signed by several union officials was rejected by the rank and file. “We are determined,” declared Mohammed Diver, a worker at the plant. “We want a guarantee of employment.”
The bosses have hired two rent-a-cop strike-breaking outfits to intimidate the workers. They have also threatened to fire some of the strike leaders. Meanwhile,the Peugeot bosses who claim they must close the plant and wipe out 8,000 jobs because they can’t make a profit from this plant are paying themselves handsomely. Peugeot’s CEO tripled his salary in 2010 to to $4.2 million; two directors doubled their’s to $1.62 million; and a director stationed in Asia raked in $1.75 million — altogether a total of nearly $10 million a a year for just four bosses!
The Peugot workers are also supporting the struggles of other workers, including those at Renault who are experiencing the same problems. On january 28, they stood in soldiairty in front of the French Natonal Assembly in a united demonstration with workers from Goodyear, Air France, Virgin and Sanofi.
However, the CGT union has undercut the workers’ position by accusing the government of “mak[ing] itself management’s accomplice” for refusing to name a mediator. No doubt the government is in bed with the bosses, but mediators will not win the workers’ demands. Only the power of the rank and file to shut off the bosses’ profits can have any chance of achieving that objective. Instead of depending on mediation, the workers must try to spread the strike across the metal trades industry since all workers will be suffering under the austerity program being promoted by the Socialist government.
The Peugeot bosses claim they must dump the workforce because they can’t make a profit from this plant. But this just exposes the need for the working class to exterminate capitalism, a system based on exploitation for the profit of the few sucked out of the labor of the masses that produce everything of value. Only a revolutionary party composed of millions of workers can accomplish that goal.

The Peugeot strikers are asking for financial support, donations to be sent to:
Association de soutien aux salaries
de l’automobile du 93
19-21 rue Jacques Duclos
93600 Aulnay-sous-Bois, France 

Rulers’ Reform Dooms Immigrants to Bosses’ Whims, Cannon Fodder

U.S. ruling-class politicians, both Republican and Democrats, seem now to have decided to work together to implement the immigration reform initially proposed by President Obama. They’ve given few details, and perhaps never will, but the proposals under consideration are well known and predictable. One must just read between the lines of the statements by those driving the reform.
(1) Seal and militarize the border. “Immediately reform border security with new technology,” i.e. drones; ramp up both military and border agents’ presence on the border; increase the legal processes which control border exits and entrances.
(2) Legalize and contain immigrant workers as a segregated sub-class in slave-like working conditions. “At the same time as we reform the border security, those immigrants here ‘illegally’ must register with the government.” They must pass background checks and pay back taxes and fines. Immigrants will then receive a “period of legal probation” during which they can live and work legally in the U.S. but will be ineligible to receive Federal benefits. This is a rehash of the “guest worker” program under which immigrants remain in the U.S. at the whim of their bosses.
(3) A path to citizenship? Some Senators are demanding a mandatory program to check the legal status of all new employees throughout the U.S. (Expansion of E-Verify). These “reformers” also insist that immigrants who get “legal status” under this legislation and pass their period of probation must then “go to the back of the line” behind those who have come through legal channels and are seeking citizenship. This could take decades. It also leaves these “guest workers” subject to the manipulation of visa and citizenship quotas due to country of origin or education and job skills. So-called “permanent residency” and “citizenship” are at the end of a long tunnel. Many will never find their way out.
(4) Arrange for a large number of young people to join the military. While many politicians and government think tanks know this could provide a path to citizenship for many younger workers, those who hold power in the U.S. understand the need for a bigger war machine to defend their empire in a period of continuous wars. What better way to get “willing” recruits than to dangle the potential for citizenship before many young immigrants? The so-called Dream Act incorporates this process.
The rampant segregation of immigrant workers concerning their work location, residence site and their cultural and political life, leaves many immigrants vulnerable to the false promises in this movement for immigration reform.
But there’s another side: Workers worldwide have always fought back and continue to fight for a better life. However, if we just see ourselves as immigrants, we lose. If we just see ourselves as citizens, we lose. The bosses win when immigrants and their supporters organize to fight back on “their issues.” Immigrants and citizens belong to only one class — we are the producers of all the world’s riches. When we unite as one class, which does not recognize the rulers’ borders or ethnic\heritage\“racial”\gender differences, this unity immediately puts us on the offensive against the attacks by the capitalist class.
March on May Day, May 1, for the unity of the international working class.

Turn U.S.-China Rulers’ Clash into Class War

Barack Obama’s pivot to Asia puts the U.S. on a collision course with Beijing. At the same time, the U.S. bosses’ economic crisis could threaten their long-term ability to prevail militarily over China. As a result, they’re seeking a worldwide coalition against their imperialist rivals.
Meanwhile, Chinese expansionism is already threatening near-term conflict that the U.S. ruling class may be unable to avoid, ready or not. Obama is “rebalancing” U.S. forces to East Asia while maintaining bases in the Middle East to control oil and gas resources and supply lines — the reason it has fought two wars in the region and murdered millions of workers since 1991. But China’s bosses need the same resources to supply their expanding economy, another threat to U.S. domination.
That’s why China’s capitalists, in addition to launching a blue-water (deep-sea) navy, are forcibly claiming title to oil-rich islands in the South China and East China seas. Their goal is to turn their rivals’ operations in the area into acts of war. In fact, ExxonMobil and Chevron are already drilling there, both for oil and to enlist potential U.S. war partners the Philippines, Japan and Vietnam.

Click to read more ...

Youth Rebel Against RACIST MURDER of Kimani Gray

BROOKLYN, NY, March 11 — Hundreds of mainly black youth gathered on the corner of Church Avenue and E 55th street tonight, angered over the murder of their friend Kimani Gray by the racist NYPD.  It hasn’t even been a year since Shantel Davis was shot down in cold blood by Phillip Atkins, a plainclothes officer operating out of the KKKlavern, otherwise known as the 67th precinct.
The cops claimed, as usual, that Kimani had a gun but one woman at a window declared he was unarmed and his friends said the cops never identified themselves. The cops put eleven bullets into this 16-year-old, who lay face down on the ground pleading for his life.

Click to read more ...

Racist Hospital Closings Spur Militant Fight-back

BROOKLYN, NY, February 14 —  This is a racist attack on the residents of Red Hook.  The State of New York is coming for our patients’ lives. The power to stop this comes from us when we are united…Writing letters will not do it!
That’s what a Long Island College Hospital (LICH) paramedic said to hundreds of co-workers and community residents at a rally to stop the proposed hospital closing. And it brought the crowd to their feet!
Hundreds of hospital workers are struggling to stop the closing of Downstate Central and LICH. These hospitals serve primarily black, working-class neighborhoods. LICH serves Red Hook, an area devastated by superstorm Sandy and the massive public housing projects there.

Click to read more ...

Worker-Student Unity Battles Columbia U.’s Billionaire Board

NEW YORK CITY, March 8 — Today several hundred chanting students joined workers in another militant solidarity march on Columbia University’s (CU) campus. The 35 Faculty Club workers are fighting for a decent wage, for pay during school breaks and against all their tips being stolen. Many students and workers, a faculty member and community supporters spoke about the millions of dollars CU spends to pay and renovate the home of President Bollinger and to take over West Harlem while refusing to pay a living wage to workers.

Click to read more ...

Mass Texas Rally Slams Racist Tests, Cuts

AUSTIN, TEXAS, February 23 — Over 2,000 angry parents, teachers, students and community members rallied today, demanding an end to STAAR (the state’s latest standardized testing scheme) and to fight the $5.4 billion cuts in education.
The crowd this year was angrier and more militant than in the past. The rage could be felt as the multiracial mass led by two all-black marching bands strode up the main downtown avenue toward the capitol. Liberal misleaders of the march led chants of “Si se puede” (“yes, we can”) and “Save our schools.” PL’ers, joining in with rank-and-file students and teachers, led militant slogans: “The banks got bailed out, schools got sold out!” and “Up, up with education, down, down with deportations.”

Click to read more ...

Rage Against Collocation, School Shutdowns Students Set Up to Fail

NEW YORK CITY, March 13 — Students and teachers took to the streets last Thursday once again to protest the Department of Education’s (DOE) proposal to collocate a charter elementary school into the Tilden campus building. It already houses three high schools. This time the struggle was taken to the steps of Tweed, the DOE’s headquarters in Manhattan. Students from Brownsville Academy, who recently won their collocation, fight joined dozens of students and staff from the Tilden campus. Despite the cold and rain, spirits were high as students picketed and chanted. Many received CHALLENGE.

Click to read more ...