Hundreds of Wayfair Workers Walk Out, Protest Company’s Support of Concentration Camps

Hundreds of workers at Wayfair Inc. organized a walk-out to protest the decision of their bosses to fulfill contracts with BCFS, a company that operates migrant detention camps near the U.S. border.

The workers made public that the company had recently approved a $200,000 order to supply furniture to a camp that would hold captive up to 3,000 migrant children.

In a letter to the bosses, they demanded the company “cease all current and future business with BCFS and other contractors participating in the operation of migrant detention camps at our Southern border (or anywhere else).”

Less than a day after the CEO Niraj Shah rejected the workers request in writing, they announced a walk-out for the following day.

The 547 worker signatories to the letter wrote, “the United States government and its contractors are responsible for the detention and mistreatment of hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking asylum in our country— we want that to end. We also want to be sure Wayfair has no part in enabling, supporting, or profiting from this practice.”

Migrant Children Held in Brutal Conditions

The separation of families has a long history in the U.S. This image shows the fate of many Indigenous and African children.

If this can happen, whose children are next?

Attorneys visiting a detention facility near El Paso, Texas reported that 250 infants, children and teens had been held for 27 days without adequate food, water or sanitation. Children were taking care of sick infants. 15 children had the flu. They were fed uncooked frozen food and had gone for weeks without bathing or a change of clothing. The facility is located in Clint, Texas, in the desert.

The children had been separated from adult caregivers. At least six children have died in detention since December. A teenage mother with a premature baby was in detention for nine days.

The attorneys went to court, but the Trump administration argued that the government is NOT required to give children soap, toothbrushes or diapers.

The Justice Department argued that the camps were not required to provide children with beds. Children have been sleeping on concrete floors with aluminum foil blankets.

Toddlers have been separated from parents and caged in camps.

U.S. imperialist policies like NAFTA have destroyed rural economies. They have put in place dictatorships such as the one in Honduras which has driven thousands from their homes. But they don’t find refuge here.

The Trump administration has threatened to carry out terror raids to deport millions across the U.S. Trump also says the U.S. can keep migrants in unlimited detention. These concentration camps are being run by private corporations for profit so the government wants to fill them up.

This is what was done during slavery to Black and Indian children. This is what they did to Japanese Americans during WWII. This is what the Nazis did.
This policy is an attack on all workers, citizen and immigrant. They want to push down all our wages and take away all benefits. We must stand up together to demand their release.

Close the concentration camps!

Abolish ICE!

Free the children and the families!

Full legalization and equality for all immigrants!

Children at the McAllen, Texas, Border Patrol station are denied bedding, nutrition, and sanitation.

Secretaries of Defense Make a Killing


On June 18 Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan stepped down after being exposed as a domestic abuser. Before becoming Secretary of Defense, Shanahan served as Boeing Senior Vice President, Supply Chain & Operations.

Shanahan’s replacement and now acting Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper, was previously a senior executive at the Raytheon Company as vice president for Government Relations.

In 2017 Boeing sold $26.9 billion in arms, Raytheon $23.9 billion. These 2 companies are the 2nd and 3rd largest arms manufacturers in the world after U.S.-based Lockheed Martin.

Every year billions of dollars of arms are paid for with U.S. tax-payer money. According to estimates by the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, the average American taxpayer has spent almost $24,000 on war since 2001.

U.S. Wars Mean Mega-Profits for Corporations, Not Security

By Jennifer Lin

The US is a relentless war machine hellbent on destroying innocent human lives in its quest for military dominance and profit. The Pentagon has reached a deal with Lockheed Martin to procure over the next three years 478 F-35 stealth war planes (the most expensive US weapons systems in history) for $34 billion. This will be the largest procurement of weapons in US history. The deal will allow Lockheed to maintain its position as the world’s largest military contractor. Lockheed is responsible for some of the most atrocious war crimes. Their fighter jets have formed the backbone of Israel’s brutal attacks on Lebanon and Palestine as well as Saudi Arabia’s war against Yemen, which has plunged the country into intense poverty, famine, and disease.

Raytheon is another military contractor that has a history of supplying weapons to Israel and Saudi Arabia. The company has agreed to merge with United Technologies, a corporation that researches and develops aerospace and defense systems. The combined company, Raytheon Technologies Corporation, is expected to rake in $74 billion in annual sales, which would make it the second-largest aerospace and defense contractor after Boeing.

This merger is part of a wider trend in the consolidation of military corporations for the purpose of accumulating more wealth for the capitalist ruling class.

The consolidation of wealth and power among war profiteers, along with banks and oil companies, directly deprives working class people. The lion’s share of our tax dollars are being squandered on deadly weapons instead of being invested in education, healthcare, housing, and much-needed public services that would improve all our lives.

As workers, we must demand an end to U.S. wars. All wars waged by the U.S. serve the interests of the U.S. ruling class, which also wages war against workers daily in the form of capitalist exploitation and oppression. As long as capitalism is allowed to continue, so will wars for profit. Millions of civilians will die, and the planet will continue to be destroyed at an unprecedented rate.

Stopping U.S. imperialist wars must be part of a larger effort to overthrow capitalism. We must continue to educate, agitate, and organize against ALL forms of capitalist exploitation.

Bankers, War Profiteers Censor Facebook Feed

By Adam Pedesclaux

Its common knowledge that we don’t see everything that is posted on Facebook because certain things are censored. But what doesn’t get said is that the U.S. government and various bomb and weapons manufacturers, banks, and even companies like Nestle and Starbucks control the filter on what we see. Everything we see or read comes through this filter. It makes sense that users would be sheltered from certain violent or hateful content, but with this power to regulate our feeds also comes the ability to censor “undesirable” political content. For the censors, that often means anything that criticizes the U.S. or any other imperialist governments or various companies. After the 2016 election and in the beginnings of the Mueller-Trump foolishness, the same-colored wool that they tried to put over our eyes after 9/11 to push the Patriot Act to better spy and censor us was once again drawn over our eyes—this time under the pretense of stopping “fake news.”

To save us from the monster of “fake news” after the 2016 election, Facebook partnered with the Atlantic Council, which is a NATO lobbying group. For those who don’t know, the Atlantic Council is a group representing government and business interests, with weapons manufacturers like Raytheon and General Atomic being high level members, as well as various domestic and foreign banks including Goldman Sachs and a few oil companies. Lower level members even include Reuters, one of the most commonly sourced news organizations. A “nonpartisan” organization as they describe themselves (yet funded by the never nonpartisan U.S. government and various other governments of NATO nations as well as bomb manufacturers, banks, and many, many more), they lobby for pro-war and business policies (i.e., anti people policies) and now have a major say in what we can see on our Facebook feeds.

It only makes sense, then, that many anti-war and pro-peace pages have been removed without reasonable excuses from Facebook, and they have even attempted to remove teleSUR a few times, a Venezuelan-based news organization that shows the opposite side of the aggressive stance U.S. media has taken against the country. Perhaps this should serve as a reminder not to trust everything on the internet (especially social media) and question the limited perspectives offered to us on these broad issues when we need all sides to formulate opinions.

Rural Healthcare: United States vs. Vietnam

United States ☒
Vietnam ☑

By Gregory William

There is a crisis of rural health care in the U.S. Since 2005, over one hundred rural hospitals have closed across the country. Many more are on the verge. A study by the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program found that of the 89 hospitals that have closed since 2010, the vast majority (67) were in the South.

The authors of the Rural Health Research study note that the increase in closures coincides with the 2008-2009 recession, meaning that it is tied to the cyclical crises inherent in the capitalist system. Closures also accelerated in states that did not accept Medicaid expansion. In these mostly southern states, people also tend to be poorer, are more likely to be uninsured, and therefore cannot pay for care. Since our medical system is based around corporate greed and not people’s needs, the closure of hospitals and other healthcare facilities is unsurprising. In fact, the majority of hospitals that have closed are privately-owned, that is, for-profit hospitals.

It’s been drilled into our heads that the market always knows best, that if everything is privatized and for profit, things will run more efficiently. However, we see that the profit motive leads to extreme inefficiency and worse, hardship for the masses of people. How is this reasonable?

Communities across the U.S. lack hospitals and even basic clinics, and people cannot afford care. And yet, there is a parasitic class of “healthcare billionaires,” like Thomas Frist Jr., co-founder of the Hospital Corporation of America. His net worth is $11.6 billion, making him the wealthiest person in Tennessee. This is ironic considering that Tennessee had the highest number of hospital closures after Texas!

Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. The U.S. has a GDP of about $20 trillion, almost 90 times the size of Vietnam’s GDP ($223.9 billion). Despite having a much smaller economy, Vietnam assures that every ward in the country (including in rural areas) has a clinic. When there isn’t a resident doctor in a village, the Ministry of Health assigns doctors to rotations. Vietnam is also on track to ensuring health coverage to all citizens.

This isn’t an accident. The fact is that Vietnam still has socialist, rational economic planning. Because they had a socialist revolution, the masses of working people have a real say over the direction of the country’s development (even if the government has allowed some capitalism to return).

The state still owns the oil and gas industry, and mostly controls banking, insurance, mobile service, construction, electricity production, ship-building, and many other industries. Land cannot be bought or sold because it belongs to the entire people. Because there is socialist, collective ownership in the economy (without profit being the only consideration), the government can make rational decisions about what to do with social resources. They can say,

“People in this area need a hospital, so we will build a hospital. This clinic doesn’t have a doctor, so we’ll assign one to work there.”

Again, all this is possible because working class and oppressed people fought for these things and won. Collectively, we too have to make the decision that our health—our lives—will not be a commodity. We have to organize to take power and overthrow the capitalist class so that we can pursue socio-economic development that meets the needs of the people and doesn’t destroy the planet.

Speak Truth to Power

By Jewell Prim

Speak truth to power
To the things that you seek
Freedom
Will not be handed to us
By our oppressor
Especially, if we are meek

Speak truth to power
To the things that you see and hear
Injustice
That purposefully runs
Through our community
Has no place in
The veins of our street

And I know that it is hard.
I too feel the pain,
That we all breathe
Growing up numb
Taught to be undyingly strong
Fervently brave
Face things that we can’t even
Bear to say

But what they don’t tell
You in any classroom
Is the power of the youngest soul
Hidden information
Nutrients that would make
The revolution grow.
That would remove our oppressor
From the centerfold

Did you hear?
About the action that broke
A chain of tears
Led by the children of Birmingham
in May of 1963?
They organized themselves
Took guidance from their leaders
And peacefully descended in protest
into the streets of their very own city

The government sent in their pigs
Squealing in delight
As they arrested little black bodies
Only armed with their power
And their might for demanding what is right.

As young as seven
And as old as the youth grow
They stood up to the system
Those men in the big houses
That feast on the strife of all our kinfolk.

The pigs sprayed those bright black children
With water from the fire hose
And in response they danced
And they sing song sang
Lyrics of unity and love and life,
Knowing that their undying joy
Would be the greatest ammo
To defeat the piercing knife

It was ingrained in the false power’s minds.
They were so sure,
That no child had the grit
To deliver the blow that they deserved

Imagine the view
Of thousands of young people
Flowing into the city in waves
Of devotion to their freedom
Steadfast in their decision
That their people would live
To breathe the freedom that we all must ring
To smile another day.

Gordon Plaza Struggle Continues

On June 12, 2019, the Mayor of New Orleans was proud to announce an award of $12.5 million dollars in FEMA funding that was made available to elevate 52 “historic” homes that have experienced severe flood damage. BUT this celebratory moment proved to be a slap in the face of the Black working class residents of Gordon Plaza, who occupy 54 homes that were built on the toxic soil of a Superfund site (the former Agriculture Street Landfill), and rightly deserve a fully funded relocation.

How is it that the 52 “historic” homes (primarily the property of rich folk or potential tourist attractions) were prioritized over the need for a fully funded relocation of Black working class people that live on dangerously toxic soil?
Just last month, ANOTHER report came out declaring that Gordon Plaza, as a New Orleans neighborhood in the Upper 9th Ward, is within the census tract.

According to the Louisiana Tumor Registry report, Gordon Plaza is found to have the second-highest consistent rate of cancer among all Louisiana census tracts in the entire state.

YET and STILL, the entire city council of New Orleans is silent on this issue.

YET and STILL, the newest mayor, in a line of mayors who “seemed” to care about Gordon Plaza, during election season, is SILENT on this issue.

When will the city of New Orleans really demonstrate an action oriented, resourced investment in Black working class people, with Black working class involvement and community accountability? We cannot wait for that answer!
Collectively, we must demand change! We must organize for what we want! We must organize for what we need! How we gonna make New Orleans rise?

Educate! Agitate! Organize!

Tell the City Council: Make New Orleans an Abortion Sanctuary City Now!

By Ashlee Pintos

On June 6, 2019, the New Orleans City Council voted unanimously on a resolution that states their opposition to the recent abortion ban bill that Governor John Edwards signed May 30. The bill that has been passed is another assault on working people’s reproductive healthcare as it bans abortions in the state of Louisiana after the 6 week mark of pregnancy. This bill has no exceptions for rape or incest and in conjunction with the already existing Hyde Amendment, which blocks Medicaid funding for abortion, access to choice for working/poor people is increasingly impossible.

At the council meeting, members of the New Orleans Workers Group demanded that City Council take the necessary steps to declare New Orleans an abortion sanctuary city and that they decline to prosecute anyone seeking an abortion or providing one within Orleans Parish.

Resolutions look nice for the careers of politicians who want a reputation for being “on the right side of history,” but what does that do for us workers who are most affected? Nothing! We need to demand more of city council members and law enforcement. We demand action!

History has already shown us the terrible consequences for poor people when abortion access is restricted. The results of this ban are death, forced generational poverty, and further oppression of child-bearing people. This is just what the capitalists want, and without a mass movement to engage in struggle over our human rights, this is just what they will get.

Here in New Orleans, local politicians rave about being a “progressive city” with Democrats in office and a handful of liberal policies that contrast the rest of the Republican State. However, this has historically meant very little as Baton Rouge continuously denies New Orleans home rule.

Think making New Orleans an abortion sanctuary city is too bold? Just last week, an all-white-male city council in Waskom, TX, declared their city a “sanctuary city for the unborn.” Waskom, TX, conservatives wanted to prevent the opening of an abortion facility after the one in Shreveport, LA, just 20 miles east of their town, was threatened with closure following Louisiana’s abortion ban. If the right-wing can so easily declare sanctuary cities to their liking, why can’t New Orleans do so for its people? It is long overdue that New Orleans take up the struggle against Baton Rouge.

Income Inequality in New Orleans Charter Schools

By Beatrice Deslondes, Letter to the Editor

Many charter school and charter network leaders are earning upwards of $200,000 per year in a city with a median income of $38,721.

My survey of budget audits for 34 New Orleans charter schools for the 2017-2018 school year reveals:

  • Among charter networks, CEOs received an average salary of $190,743 while managing an average of 4 schools.
  • Among non-network schools, the average principal earned a base salary of $143,417.

The salary charts of the neighboring public school district of Jefferson Parish recommend that a principal earn up to 1.75 times a teacher’s salary. On average, leaders in New Orleans earned 2.96 times what teachers earned.

Most audits stopped including teacher salaries in 2017-2018, but audits for the two previous years reveal a trend of increasing inequality. Between the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years:

  • Average teacher pay dropped nearly 1% at non-network schools ($50,644 to $49,768) and 0.2% at networks (from $51,005 to $50,640).
  • Average leader salaries increased nearly 9% at non-network schools (from $144,217 to $155,234) and over 20% at networks (from $156,828 to $176,329).

Teacher shortages are a problem in New Orleans. According to a Cowen Institute report, teachers in New Orleans with Master’s degrees and 5 years of experience would need to spend 44% of their income on rent alone.

Information about pay for paraprofessionals or co-teachers is lacking in the audits. The Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) lists salaries for “Aides” between $18,863 and $23,955.

The school workers who support students’ most critical needs—security, nutrition, and health—are among the worst paid. The OPSB pay scale permits paying nurses and security workers as little as $22,427, while nutrition workers can earn as little as $16,000.

A 2018 report by the United Way of Louisiana concluded that the minimum annual income required to support human life in New Orleans in 2016 was $19,548 for a single adult and $53,988 for a family of four.

Income inequality contributes to high turnover rates in the school system and economic instability in the communities it is obligated to serve. Pay transparency and living wages for all school employees should be required of all institutions receiving public funds.