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Union Workers Are Winning Gains

Working people fed up with low wages, high rent, and other injustices take note: You are not alone in your frustration. As the crisis of the global capitalist system continues, workers and op-pressed communities suffer. The upside is that more workers are fighting back by joining unions and going on strike.
This was becoming evident as even mainstream news outlets like CNN had to cover the incredible teacher strike wave of 2018, which has spilled over into 2019. Labor organizing among Amazon, USPS, and other workers also broke through into mass consciousness.

But now the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (the official federal agency that studies these things) has confirmed that the increase in labor activity is real.

According to a bureau news release on Feb. 8, there were at least 20 major work stoppages involving 485,000 workers in 2018. This is the biggest increase in the number of U.S. workers involved in work stoppages since 1986, when 533,000 workers engaged in strikes or walkouts. And this is the largest increase in the number of major work stoppages since 2007, a year that saw 21 such stop-pages, according to the bureau.

Ninety percent of striking workers in 2018 are in education, healthcare, or social assistance (e.g., childcare), fields not usually associated with militant labor activity. Strikes also occurred in many states often described as “conservative,” such as West Virginia and Kentucky. The longest major stoppage in 2018 involved the National Grid and United Steelworkers, began on June 25 and was on-going through 2018.

One aspect not covered by the bureau’s news release is the degree to which the strikes have been effective. The strike upturn is notable not only because of the number of workers involved, or the number of stoppages. It is also impressive that striking workers in 2018 tended to stick to their guns to the end, bosses to make concessions. Most of the big strikes that made the news resulted into new contracts, higher wages, and other gains.

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Buses Should Be Free, Come Every 15 Minutes, 24/7

Return tourist taxes to RTA

There is one-third the number of buses now than before Katrina. The city and RTA have spent millions on streetcars for tourists but not to provide proper transportation for residents. The big hoopla about RTA plans reveals one major fact: once again, the city has prioritized the rich, not the workers.

There is nothing in the Strategic Mobility Plan that aims to address the needs of working class New Orleanians. Gentrification—with its rising rents and home costs—has driven residents, especially Black residents, further away from jobs and shopping areas.

The new regional plan only links RTA with JET but still makes the trip expensive. So, you are forced to move further away only to pay more for transportation. The RTA survey done recently and at great expense was designed by highly paid professionals who are clueless. There seems to be no end to money available conduct to such studies.

Many neighborhoods are discriminated against in new regional plan.

Here’s a survey question to ask: If buses were free, ran every fifteen minutes 24/7 and stopped near your house, would you ride the bus?

Everyone knows that when you can’t count on transportation or wait in the rain with your kids after walking 10 blocks to the bus stop you’ll do anything but ride the bus. But when buses run often, conveniently, and bus stops are sheltered, when fares are free, people ride the bus.

It was also revealed that $31 million dollars in tourist tax money was given illegally to the Convention Center for tourist company profits that should have gone to RTA. The RTA is rightfully demanding it back and we support that. But if the money is returned what will be done with it?

A new 14 passenger mini bus costs about $65,000 after fitting for wheelchairs and bike racks. (Not every bus needs to be big) You can buy 100 for only $6.5 million dollars. Add 100 drivers to the payroll at the cost of $6.5 million a year, 20 mechanics cost $1.5 million a year, 20 cleaners, $1.5 million, plus gas and permits. And you still have money left from the $31 million.

The city should prioritize hiring local people and having great bus service instead of giving 63% of the city budget to cops and jails. The community, together with the bus drivers’ union, can run the system better and serve the needs of both.

You can barely find a job, the wages are too low, you can’t afford car insurance or there is no place to park and the bus is unreliable. This amounts to illegal racist economic segregation.

Does it sound unreasonable to demand free buses? The Los Angeles Bus Riders Union organized and won free fares for lower income folks. Time to get organized.

Members of the Transit Riders Union in Seattle won the largest low-income fare program in the country in March 2015.
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Yemenis Demand End to U.S./Saudi War!

An effigy of Donald Trump with the words “Yemeni child murderer”in Hodeida, Yemen.

Tens of thousands of Yemenis held demonstrations throughout the country to condemn Trump’s veto of a U.S. congressional resolution directing “the removal of United States Armed Forc-es from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress.” Protesters denounced the United States for continuing to support the Saudi-led war and blockade against their country.

Advocacy for the Yemen War Powers resolution—which has been led by Yemeni-American groups—has spread awareness of the criminal war on the people of Yemen. The U.S./Saudi military campaign has resulted in the deaths of 15,250 civilians, including 3,527 children and 2,277 women, according to the Legal Center for Rights and Development in Yemen, a non-governmental organiza-tion monitoring human-rights violations. Many more have been wounded and suffer from a short-age of medical supplies and treatment due to the Saudi land, air, and sea blockade. Millions of Yeme-nis are on the brink of starvation.

On April 8, at least 14 schoolchildren were killed when a Saudi coalition air strike targeted resi-dential areas in Yemen’s west-central province of Sana’a.
When Yemeni journalist Ahmed Abdulkareem asked one of the protesters in Sana’a to give a statement to the English speaking press, he replied, “My message is only to the American people: is spilling more Yemeni blood acceptable to you?”

More than ever, progressive people in the U.S. must stand with our Yemeni siblings to demand an end to the U.S./Saudi war on Yemen.

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Millions Rise Up in Sudan- Women Lead the Way

Protestors demonstrate in front of the Defense Ministry in Khartoum, Sudan on April 22.

“Freedom, Peace and Revolution is the People’s Choice.” This is the phrase that has become the morning greeting of the Sudanese people.

Without stop for the past five months, millions of people across the country have mounted demonstrations in opposition to the government of Omar Al Bashir who was forced out of office on April 11.

Last October protests broke out over an austerity program imposed by Bashir which slashed government services and cut basic subsidies on commodities such as bread.

The demonstrators include many young people, among whom nearly 30 percent suffer from unemployment.

Women have also played a leading role in the mass uprising. Apart from the extreme economic hardships that have been born by the working masses of Sudan, women are doubly oppressed by public order laws which limit women’s access to travel, education, and association. Many have also protested the sexual violence that the Sudanese state upholds (marital rape is legal in Sudan).

Attempting a “palace coup”, a military junta has assumed the place of the ruling government, but the demonstrators have pressed on, demanding a full transfer of power to the civilian representatives of the Forces for Freedom and Change, a mass coalition which has been at the forefront of the protests. They are calling for continued mass action, demand the removal of all of Bashir’s associates and deputies, the freeing of political prisoners, and the lifting of the national state of emergency.

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South African Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party Founded

04 April 2019: Members of the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP) at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg during the launch of the party. Picture: Ihsaan Haffejee
On April 4-6, the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP) held its Launch Congress in Boksburg, South Africa. Over a thousand worker delegates from provinces across the country and international guests met to announce their party’s intention to participate in upcoming national elections under the slogan “equality, work, and land.”

The party draws its strong base from the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), which has over 800,000 members throughout South Africa. Last year SAFTU organized a nationwide strike—one of the largest in recent history—to demand reforms to the country’s labor laws and an increase in the national minimum wage. More generally, SAFTU organizes for the “creation of JOBS for all, a living minimum wage, return of LAND, good housing for all and free quality education.”

SAFTU was formed as an initiative of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) who broke the ruling African National Congress (ANC)-led ruling alliance after the Mari-kana Massacre of 2012, during which 34 striking miners were killed by police.

The ANC once led the heroic struggle to bring an end to apartheid (the Jim Crow system of white political rule) but has since betrayed the poor and working masses. The ANC’s Cyril Ramaphosa, a billionaire and current South African president, was found to have egged on the police responsible for the massacre. The ANC has pursued anti-worker labor laws and has implemented widespread privatization of public resources which have worsened the conditions for the working class of South Africa.

The Workers Party stresses that history has shown that human dignity and rights for workers cannot be guaranteed by the ANC or any other capitalist government. In a party statement, the SWRP declared “for all the world to know that we as Socialists are committed to building the organ-ization of a revolutionary working class. A class aware of its own interests. A class that will over-throw the capitalist parasites. A working class that will seize power for the project of building So-cialism, in which no human will be exploited by another.”

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Cancel Puerto Rico’s Bank Debt

By Ashlee Pintos

The United States has had its imperialist boot on the neck of Puerto Rico for well over 100 years. Both on the island and throughout the diaspora, all Puerto Ricans have been treated as second class citizens under colonial rule. As we look through the windows of the past, we see clearly how the is-land and the blood of Puerto Ricans have meant nothing but a dollar sign to U.S. Capitalists (both Democrats and Republicans).

Donald Trump’s recent racist comments on Puerto Rico’s “debt” crisis is nothing out of character for a U.S. capitalist. The U.S. Congress passed the Promesa Act under the Obama Administration which aims to force Boricuas to pay an illegitimate debt (accrued by massive tax breaks and corpo-rate ventures) of $74 billion. Since the U.S. illegally invaded and seized the island as a colony in 1898, the island’s veins have been open to the bloodthirsty U.S. capitalists. This illegitimate debt is a disas-ter that the U.S. created to keep air out of Puerto Rico’s lungs.

Let us not forget that in the early 1900s Puerto Rico suffered a hurricane similar to Maria. Then as now the US response was horrific: they deemed the Puerto Rican peso to be worth 60% of a US dollar. In the blink of an eye every Puerto Rican’s holdings dropped 40% in value.

Moreover, Puerto Rico is restricted in its ability to trade with any country other than the US while simultaneously being forced to pay one of the highest sales taxes (20%).

We know that the U.S. government is a government by and for the Wall Street banks. So—by no choice of the Puerto Rican people—it’s Wall Street banks that Boricuas are beholden to (with ever increasing interest) to cover basic expenses. To top it all off, the U.S. has made it illegal for Puerto Rico to declare bankruptcy.

Now, almost two years since hurricane Maria killed over 4,000 and left thousands without elec-tricity or basic necessities for months, Trump and U.S. officials are demanding that the island pay its debt. This seemingly hopeless situation is exactly how U.S. capitalists want it. They would prefer that Puerto Ricans cease to exist so that they can continue to build their corporate tourist play-ground. Both the debt and the United States rule are illegitimate.
Despite all that Puerto Ricans have been subjected to, we have never stopped resisting and fighting for our liberation. Most recently, many university students have been organizing against austerity measures put in place by Obama’s PROMESA board. Since Maria, there have been massive demonstrations in San Juan and other regions of the island to militantly protest austerity measures such as a 50% hike in tuition prices, privatization of the electrical grid and schools, and job and pen-sion cuts. Militant pro-independence groups such as the Ejército Popular Boricua (EPB-Macheteros) have been calling all Boricuas out into the streets to demand justice. Through hundreds of years of colonial rule Boricuas know one thing to be true: La Vida es Lucha Toda (all life is struggle).

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Violence by NOPD on the Rise Again

By Star

In less than two months’ time, the NOPD’s actions have resulted in the deaths of at least 4 people and another 11 injuries. They’ve endangered the lives of hundreds of bystanders, and they have brutally assaulted an innocent woman. So far there has been no accountability.

On February 17, the police were in an open gun fight in one of the busiest sections of town, Canal and Elk. The cops killed one man; five others were wounded. As it relates to gun fights in well-populated, public areas, the Mayor stated that “our city sleeps under the protection of an interconnected web of law enforcement agencies whose effectiveness is on display every day.” In the same breath, she assured “the public” that the city was ready for Carnival.

Looking past NOPD’s decision to engage in a public gun war, she apparently prioritizes Carnival over the safety of everyday citizens.

On March 20, around 8:30 pm, the police, in violation of their own Vehicle Pursuit policy, chased a car into a Beauty Supply Store and Salon. The building was set ablaze during the crash, killing a woman, two teenage boys and injuring six other bystanders.

On April 13, an NOPD commander brutally assaulted a 21-year-old nursing student in the Quarter, as can be plainly seen in a video taken by a bystander. When her family complained, they were arrested.

Reports, surveillance footage and police statements all show that the police will lie about violating laws and rights, even when caught on video. Their reports are filled with contradictions, lies and subjective descriptions that clearly point to their low opinion of the public’s ability to think. Now multiple people have died, and countless people have been traumatized: many lives will never be the same.

These are horrendous crimes by the police without any city action. Now is not the time for the court to cancel the Federal Consent Decree, which was a partial victory against a totally violent NOPD won by community activists.

All these deaths, injuries, and abuses must be investigated. Action should be taken against all involved police officers and any brass involved in cover-ups.

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Letter to the Editor: Xenophobia in St. Bernard

By a St. Bernard Parish resident

I am deeply saddened by the demonstrations of xenophobia at the Italian, Irish, and Isleños Parade. A float titled “Build the Wall” paraded while people flaunted “white power” hand gestures, wore Kim Jong-un masks while impersonating East Asian stereotypes, mockingly wore “Mexican Lives Matter” shirts while wearing Trump masks, imitated Border Patrol deporting immigrants, and threw out toilet paper with blatant sexist statements written on it (“grab ‘em”, “Stormy Daniels Makes Trump Sammichs”, etc.). At their worst, they were mocking the sanctity of others’ lives simply because they are different than them.

It is a certain type of irony that a parade celebrating the rich culture and history of immigrant groups tolerates the blatant persecution of other, newer immigrant groups at a family event. My great-great grandfather and my great-grandfather were both born in Cefalu, Sicily. They undertook the arduous journey to New York and New Orleans, respectively, in pursuit of a better life promised by our country. Sicilian immigrants were lynched in the streets of New Orleans, forced to live on the outskirts of town or in the slums of the Quarter, and called “dago” or other derogatory slurs on a daily basis. It seems we’ve forgotten our history because we have been accepted as “white.” If we deplore the discrimination against our immigrant ancestors who sought a better life, we must confront and reject it when done to immigrants today, who are seeking those same opportunities. We can celebrate our cultures without dehumanizing other immigrant groups.

Not only would we do well to remember the history of how our ancestors were treated as immigrants, but we would do well to remember the hands that helped rebuild our parish from the ground up after Katrina. I remember the migrants who poured into the community, working in dreadful conditions to gut and rebuild homes, roads, businesses, and schools. They labored tirelessly in oppressive heat and humidity, and many had no place to sleep. They were there for us from the earliest phases of the rebuilding process. Post-Katrina St. Bernard Parish was built on the backs of migrant labor. They assisted us in our desperate time of need as we lamented the unfathomable devastation and mourned the hundreds who perished. We must *never* forget that nor forsake them.

To close, we should always stand up to hate, *especially* within our home community, no matter the backlash or repercussions. We should welcome incoming immigrant communities. Stand with them. To any immigrant, person of color, or anyone who belongs to any other group that was targeted by this vile xenophobia – know that there are people here that want you here. You are welcome here, and you make our community, your community, richer.

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What happens to parents when schools decide to close with a few hours’ notice?

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

How do single parents finagle their schedules for work, other siblings, and transportation with eight hours’ notice of need for childcare? We are all familiar with these situations. Bad weather reports ensue, and you get a call from the school: canceled. Even if you do not have children, this concerns you.

Imagine the stress a single mother who already has what has been normalized as the regular daily burdens of life on her shoulders. Working a second shift at home, attempting to nurture children, and heaven forbid she prioritize her own needs for a moment. I also keep in mind the fathers who are nurturing children alone. Not every individual has a community of loved ones or elders to look to for support. The stress any parent feels to place their child in a space that they will be safe, respected, and looked after properly is exponential in an unplanned situation. What is the solution? If working people got the $180 million dollars a year in tax dollars currently stolen by unelected tourism commissions, there could be a plethora of options. There could be fully funded, 24-hour, clean, safe, healthy childcare for working parents. These spaces could also provide early childcare, special needs services, and artistic enrichment to nurture whole children. There could be spaces for young people to feel whole and develop a voice.

We must prioritize our children. Another suggestion is creating a budget that allows every worker paid sick leave, maternity leave, and vacation time. In this scenario the stress can be significantly alleviated with a simple phone call to the boss. These options are not utopian; the money is there for working-class people to take back. We must organize ourselves and demand that the money be returned immediately and that it’s that way for every yearly budget. If you are interested in organizing, check out nohwa.org or peoplesassemblyneworleans.org

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Homelessness Grows for Families with Children as Rents Increase in New Orleans

By Sally Jane Black

There are 20,000 empty houses in New Orleans. These homes range from blighted buildings left after Hurricane Katrina to places intentionally kept empty by investors. This number does not include the number kept empty for most of the year for the purposes of short term rentals.

1,188 people sleep without shelter in Orleans and Jefferson Parish every night.

For many, this lack of shelter means sleeping under the Claiborne overpass, in tents and small encampments. For others, it means finding one of the empty buildings and using it for shelter.

Yet the city council, mayor’s office, and NOPD have not opened up any empty houses to those in need. They have not worked with shelters to find solutions to the over-crowding issues they have. They have instead brought garbage trucks under the overpass, treating the possessions of those in need as waste. They have targeted people in the Quarter to take away their dogs (which many people rely on for security when they have no walls to protect them).

City officials attempt to sweep the issue under the rug, hide it from tourists, and arrest people for the crime of being poor. At the same time, landlords are throwing people out at a rate higher than anywhere else in the country, targeting people of color and women especially. These same landlords have raised the rent astronomically since Hurricane Katrina, and in many cases, converted homes and apartments to short term rentals instead. And it’s the homeless that the city treats as criminals.

Meanwhile, the city took steps to cover up the horrifying rate of death among the homeless population. Instead of taking heed of an escalating issue, the city shut down efforts to track and respond to the situation. They actually obstructed the work of people who had been informally keeping track of homeless deaths. No one knows how many were lost for lack of shelter last year, but it was on pace to be one out of every 15 people living on the streets.

The city has the resources to provide shelter for every person in the city, but the landlords and capitalists in the city profit more when they can threaten poor residents with eviction and homelessness if they don’t agree to pay inflated rental prices. No wonder a third of the city hands over half their income every month for rent. With housing, healthcare, and education all designed to provide profits to the rich instead of serving the people, the working people of New Orleans have nowhere to turn to for the resources we need—unless we organize to fight back.

There is no reason except capitalist greed that the empty homes in New Orleans cannot be opened up to those who need them. No one should die of exposure while rich people leave homes to rot for tax write-offs.