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Getting a Union is Part of the Freedom Struggle

34,000 unionized school personnel in Los Angeles made major gains in a strike this year.

Workers Have the Power—Let’s Use It!

Question: My wages suck and my boss treats me like sh*t. I never know how many hours or days I will work. I have no sick days or vacation pay. What can I do?
Answer: Under capitalism workers sell their labor to the boss. The boss then makes a profit from your labor. Unless you organize, the boss will pay you no more than the minimum. They can be racist or sexist and change all your conditions of work any way they want. There are few laws, and those that exist are hard to enforce. You can fight this with a union.

Question: That’s not right! We do all the work. Does it have to be this way?
Answer: No! I won’t say it’s easy, but you have to get together with the other workers at your job, stick together no matter what and make demands on the boss.

Question: Do we have to get a union to do that?
Answer: You can form a group of workers at your job first. You have a right to do that.

Question: Why get a union then?
Answer: It’s better to get a union because you’ll have more support. You will get a written contract that the boss signs and you can enforce it.

Question: I heard this is a “Right to Work” State. How is forming a union legal?
Answer: The bosses did get the politicians they pay off to pass a “right-to-work law.” The law is also called an “at will” law, which means the boss can fire you without reason. The law is wrong, but that law only limits on paper what unions can do. It does not ban unions.

The law in Louisiana says in Section 981: “All persons have and it shall be protected, in the exercise of the right to freely and without fear of penalty or reprisal, to form, join and assist a labor organization…”

Question: I heard a union just takes your money.
Answer: The boss says so you won’t want a union. Workers in unions or worker groups make much more than unorganized workers, plus benefits and more, so of course the boss says that.

Question: Can I get fired?
Answer: It’s illegal, but it happens. However, if you’ve organized the other workers and have solidarity and community support, the business can be pressured to rehire you. It is important to get other unions, other workers, family, and community involved.

Question: Why is this part of the freedom struggle?
Answer: Because organized workers have power. The power to fight for better wages, for a workplace without racism and sexual harassment, for sick pay and health benefits, for a right to fight a grievance against discipline or an unfair boss.

Question: Where can I get help doing this and learn how to get started?
Answer: Get in touch with Workers Voice, and we will help you get started: nolaworkersgroup@gmail.com.

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Bolivian Super Rich and U.S. Carry Out Coup Against the People

Nov. 26: New Orleans Workers Group holds a rally in solidarity with workers, peasants, Indigenous people, unions, and women’s organizations against the CIA-engineered coup in Bolivia.

New Orleans Workers Stand With Bolivian People Against Fascist U.S. Coup

The New Orleans Workers Group stands in solidarity with the workers, peasants, Indigenous people, unions and women’s organizations against the CIA-engineered coup in Bolivia carried out on behalf of the ultra rich. This anti-democratic coup is aimed at destroying the immense gains made by the Bolivian people under the leadership of Evo Morales and the Movement for Socialism (MAS). The ultra-rich in Bolivia are deeply racist and want to crush the historic liberation of the Indigenous masses in Bolivia. The rich are horrified that the oppressed, the indigenous people of Bolivia, including Morales, took their fate into their own hands.

These forces of the ultra-rich are destroying schools, burning homes, and attacking women and popular organizations. Their aim is to turn back health, education, and equality gains made in recent years. They seek to return to private profit-making vultures the vast mineral riches of Bolivia such as lithium. They seek to cut the country’s social services in order to get into the good graces of the International Monetary Fund and U.S. banks. It is total nonsense that an uprising against Morales took place on the basis of election fraud. The generals installed a president and cabinet who all hail from the non-indigenous super rich in a majority indigenous country.

This is yet another example of how even the most admirable efforts to build socialism remain vulnerable to reversal if they are confined to electoral politics. History shows us that the only way that the basis for socialism can be won is by arming the workers and peasants and getting rid of the military generals and police of the old state. We know that the Bolivian workers and peasants are up to the task.

U.S. labor unions have denounced this coup and have expressed support for Morales. These include the United Electrical Workers union, the National Nurses United and the AFL-CIO, the main union federation in the U.S. representing 12 million active and retired members.

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Bolivia: Struggle is Not Over, the Masses are Mobilizing

Nov. 12, La Paz, Bolivia: Confronting a police officer, a woman demonstrates opposition to the racist, anti-Indigenous, CIA-backed coup that forced democratically elected President Evo Morales into exile.

The right-wing, racist coup government has unleashed violent attacks on the Bolivian people. At least 31 people have been killed, mostly pro-Morales protesters. Nevertheless, the workers, indigenous, and progressive people have not backed down. Protesters have continued to fill the streets.

Indigenous women lead protests against coup in Bolivia. Many carry the Wiphala flag (above captionless photo), representing Indigenous nations of the Andes.

On November 19, mostly indigenous protesters amassed and blocked access to a major fuel plant in the town of El Alto. They created roadblocks using tires and other materials. Police and military forces descended on them, killing three and injuring 22.

Defiantly, thousands gathered around the St. Francis of Assisi church the next day to denounce the violence. Aurelio Miranda, 54, told the press, “The world must know the truth. What happened was a massacre…They used weapons like you use in war.”

All those fighting for a more just world, for indigenous and women’s rights need to show our continued solidarity in this fight. All power to the Bolivian workers and peasants!

Sign reads: “Fire the self-proclaimed President Jeanine Anez.”
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Free Prisoners in Louisiana!

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

Recently re-elected Governor John Bel Edwards spent a year boasting that Louisiana had lost its title as the highest incarcerated state in the U.S. Information released by the Vera Institute of Justice in April called that statement into question, concluding that Louisiana still had the top incarceration rate in the country at the end of 2018, five months after the governor announced that the state had lost that title to Oklahoma.

The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world. The vast majority of the millions in prison should be released tomorrow with access to homes, jobs, and support to get on their feet. They need to be reunited with their families and communities.

In November, Oklahoma ordered the largest mass commutation in United States history. This release was made possible by an overwhelming popular vote in a state-wide referendum which reduced many charges to misdemeanors instead of felonies. Despite the vote, it took three years for the state politicians to respect the results and pass a bill for commutation, keeping some prisoners years longer. At least 462 non-violent inmates were released. A total of 527 inmates had their sentences commuted, but 65 of them have detainers and will be released later.

“Had these inmates served their full uncommuted sentence, it could have cost the State of Oklahoma approximately $11.9 million for continued incarceration based upon the average costs,” the Pardon and Parole Board said. Oklahoma also provided inmates with opportunities to acquire a state ID before being released. The Oklahoma Department of Corrections held its first “transition fairs” for inmates at 28 facilities across the state, the Pardon and Parole Board said. This type of programming is a first step towards rehabilitation as opposed to a completely punitive system.

Rally at New Orleans Criminal District Court.

Louisiana must start decarcerating human beings who are being jailed for minor drug offenses that the rich are now profiting from. We can take the lead and say: No more cash bail! No more private detention centers! Free mothers to go home to their children! Free all prisoners of a punitive, racially and economically unjust criminal system!

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Freedom Now! ICE Concentration Camps Are a Menace to All Workers

By Joseph Rosen

Thanks to President Trump and Governor Edwards’ racist persecution of migrants, a few rich shareholders at private prison companies GEO Group, LaSalle Corrections, and CoreCivic have raked in millions of dollars in profits from an expanding network of more than 15 lockups across the state.

Meanwhile, working people in Louisiana have seen their families torn apart and their wages kept criminally low.

On any given day, around 9,000 men, women, and children are held captive in ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) concentration camps across Louisiana for no reason except to terrorize and super-exploit non-citizen workers. With taxpayer money, ICE contracts private prison companies and parish jails to carry out this abominable ‘business.’

Every year the capitalist U.S. government deducts millions in taxes from the paychecks of workers—citizen and non-citizen alike—in order to hand that money over to multi-millionaire prison owners. Last year, more than $600,000,000 in taxpayer money went to GEO Group; CEO George C. Zoley skimmed $6,963,460 for himself alone.

Capitalists reserve some of their profits for bribing politicians: in 2016, the GEO Group Political Action Committee spent more than $1 million this way. Similarly, the owners of LaSalle Corrections have donated thousands of dollars to Louisiana politicians including Governor Edwards. For this price, GEO Group and LaSalle secure more business and influence over the policies that affect their means of profit-making. This is just one way they work to keep wages down for all workers, citizen and non-citizen alike.

Dec. 3: Human rights demonstrators shut down private-prison firm GEO Group’s corporate headquarters in Boca Raton, FL.

The owners of private prison companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic also reap huge profits from the forced labor and slave wages of the men and women in their custody. Over 60,000 people held captive in a GEO Group work-camp in Aurora, Colorado are seeking damages for being forced to work for $1 or less a day, many under the threat of solitary confinement. Just as in other prisons across the country, this type of slavery is widespread: GEO Group alone operates 130 facilities across the country.

Capitalists get the most profit out of production by putting workers in competition with one another for wages. The less they pay one worker, the lower the wage rate another worker will have to settle for. Citizen workers are worse off when the bosses cheat their non-citizen brothers and sisters who are worse off when the bosses cheat their imprisoned brothers and sisters. Workers are strongest when we come together to fight against our common enemy: the millionaires who would enslave us all if only they owned enough prisons to keep us captive. Workers must unite to put an end to the camps and gather our forces for war on these slavemaster CEOs.

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Last Chance to See Museum Exhibit on Gordon Plaza

The Residents of Gordon Plaza are determined to fight for their lives and educate others about how their situation connects to the rest of the city, state and world. Through December 14, they have an exhibit up at the Newcomb Art Museum located at the Woldenberg Art Center #202 Newcomb Circle New Orleans, LA 70118. “The American Dream Denied: The Residents of Gordon Plaza Seek Relocation” is running concurrently with an exhibit about the water crisis in Flint Michigan, titled “Flint is Family.” Both exhibits demonstrate the way government officials have turned their backs on their residents in order to serve the rich ruling class that preys on the people.

The exhibit is a great way to learn more about a local struggle of Black working class residents in their fight for a fully funded relocation off the toxic soil (Agriculture Street Landfill) that the City of New Orleans built their homes on.

The American Dream Denied:
The Residents of Gordon Plaza
Seek Relocation
Through December 14th
Newcomb Art Museum
Tuesday – Friday: 10 am­—5 pm
Saturday: 11 am—4 pm
Exhibit is FREE & open to the public.