During the busy Thanksgiving holiday, airport workers carried out militant demonstrations in 17 cities. These included major airports in Dallas and New York, where 60 were arrested by the NYPD. The workers are tired of low wages and the high costs of healthcare, and innumerable abuses from their employer, Sky Chef.
In Miami, 12 catering workers and UNITE HERE union representatives blocked the arrivals road in front of Terminal D at the Miami International Airport. They chanted, “One job should be enough!”
In Dallas, demonstrator Preston Strickland told reporters, “We feel like because we’re the backbone of the catering operation, we should have affordable healthcare and better living wages.”
This is only the latest in a series of actions carried out by the Sky Chef workers in 2019.
In a rare display of honesty, Donald Trump has stated several times in the last two months that U.S. troops have only remained in Syria to “secure the oil.” Though Pentagon officials have tried to backtrack on his comments (since they are an admission of war crimes), the cat is out of the bag. While Trump previously claimed U.S. troops would be leaving the area—signaling a victory for the Syrian people under threat by U.S. imperialism—troops remain to maintain U.S. corporate control of the natural resources of the region.
The U.S. military’s presence in the Middle East is the primary cause of the instability and wars that have plagued the region for decades.
There is a long history of U.S. imperialism and militarism acting only to rob other nations of their natural resources. Whether it’s Bolivian lithium or Nigerian uranium or Iraqi oil they’re after, the U.S. military serves capitalist exploitation in its plunder of the world’s wealth. In Syria, it has been no different; the U.S. involvement there began when Syria tried to build their own gas pipeline and control their own resources. Since then, the U.S. has bombed hospitals and civilians, spread lies about use of chemical weapons, and backed all kinds of reactionary paramilitary organizations including the so-called “moderate rebels” now murdering the same Kurds the U.S. once backed.
The U.S. military’s presence in the Middle East is the primary cause of the instability and wars that have plagued the region for decades; the impact of imperialism is always violence and suffering for working people. Trump’s remarks expose the long-standing truth. US workers should stand in solidarity with the Syrian people and demand that Trump be prosecuted for the war crimes he admits to.
Anti-government protests have continued in Iraq since early October.
By Jennifer Lin
Protesters in Iraq are demanding the resignation of their government that is a product of U.S. imperialist occupation. Iraqis had built for themselves a highly developed country before the U.S. government destroyed it for access to its oil. After the Iraq monarchy was overthrown in 1958, British and American oil companies were kicked out and the oil was nationalized. By 1990, Iraq had the highest standard of living in the Middle East. The literacy rate was around 80% and people had access to free healthcare and education. More women were in the Iraqi parliament than in the U.S. Congress. Iraq’s children’s hospital accepted patients from all over the Middle East for free.
Determined to free themselves of U.S. imports, Iraq was moving to produce its own food as it did before British occupation. Similarly, they were moving to cut dependence on other industrial goods. Not buying U.S. commodities, using oil for their own national development: these were the real “crimes” that led to the U.S. wars.
Documents prove that the U.S. CIA considered Saddam a reliable ally when he was suppressing left and nationalist elements. But as soon as he implemented policies aimed at uplifting the working class and making Iraq economically self-sufficient, he became a threat to the economic and political dominance of the U.S. corporations.
To block the self-determination of the Iraqi people, the U.S. bombed the country in 1991. More than 90% of the country’s electrical capacity and most of its telecommunications, irrigation, water purification, and hydroelectric systems were destroyed. Bombs were aimed at farms, schools, hospitals, public transit stations, mosques, and historic sites. Around 200,000 people were killed, and the depleted-uranium missiles used by the U.S. led to tens of thousands more cancer-related deaths in the following years. Sanctions killed over half a million children.
In 2000, Saddam stopped accepting U.S. dollars as payment for oil. This was unprofitable for the U.S. capitalist class, so the U.S. invaded the country again. Bush invented propaganda accusing Iraq of developing weapons of mass destruction, but this was just a lie used to justify the invasion so the U.S. could control Iraq’s oil wealth. After the invasion, most of Iraq’s economy was either destroyed, shut down, or privatized. Poverty and unemployment skyrocketed.
The U.S. occupation was a bonanza for war profiteers and an assault on the working class. Both Iraqi and U.S. workers bore the costs of this violent imperialist war, as U.S. taxpayer dollars were stolen to fund the destruction of Iraqi lives and livelihoods.
The U.S. trained and armed Special Police Commandos to quell resistance. These death squads terrorized civilians with open gunfire, torture, arrests, and mass murders. Continued U.S. involvement in Iraq fomented sectarian violence and pushed people to join the Islamic State, locking Iraq in a state of perpetual warfare. In 2014, Obama sent troops to Iraq to “fight terrorism,” but this was just another lie used to maintain the U.S. military stronghold in the country.
On October 1, 2019 Iraqi people from all walks of life took to the streets to demand an end to the succession of repressive governments that have ruled the country since the U.S. invasion. Beholden to the ruling elites of Iraq and the U.S., these governments have stripped the Iraqi people of jobs and access to public services.
Protesters have rejected President Salih’s promises for reform, demanding that the entire government be removed from power. Despite violent repression by security forces, the Iraqi people are refusing to back down.
U.S. Ignores Poverty, Tries to Use Protests to Attack Iran
The U.S. government which only represents the oil companies and big business is not interested in the conditions of workers in Iraq or anywhere else. Always seeking to use a situation for their own purposes, however, the U.S. working through the most reactionary clerics have tried to cast the protests as anti-Iran as this fits the agenda of the U.S. There is no credible evidence that any but a small grouping are buying into this.
Workers have nothing to gain from U.S. imperialism, which imposes capitalist poverty on other countries to make the world safe for U.S. corporate control. U.S. imperialism crushes democracy wherever it goes, as the history and current situation of Iraq show. Our struggle to live a healthy life with access to jobs, food, housing, and healthcare is connected to the ongoing struggle of the Iraqi people. Our hard-earned money is stolen and used to destroy the livelihoods of Iraqi people rather than to fund public programs that would benefit us. We must stand in solidarity with any country resisting U.S. imperialism and call for an end to U.S. intervention in the country.
Entergy is a privately-owned energy company that provides electric power to the city of New Orleans for profit. As a condition of their sweetheart contract with the city government, Entergy gets a guaranteed rate of profit—technically a Return on Equity (ROE)—that is negotiated by the New Orleans City Council on behalf of the city’s capitalists.
After a year of wrangling, the City Council voted to lower Entergy’s profit to 9.35%, down from 11.1%. This leaves workers paying one of the highest energy rates in the country.
Originally, the City Council wanted the rate at 8.93%, but when Entergy squawked, Mayor Cantrell and a group of big energy users offered the 9.35% figure. Entergy’s CEO said that 9.35% was not “just and reasonable” and hampered its ability to upgrade the power grid. This after paying a $5 million fine for trying to deceive the City Council and the public by paying actors to support the construction of a widely unpopular fracked gas power plant in New Orleans East!
Entergy then offered to “front” $75 million dollars to the Sewerage and Water Board (S&WB) to upgrade its power station in return for a 10% ROE. Looking out for her friends at S&WB, Cantrell endorsed this proposal wanting us to believe that this would be a service to the people. Cantrell constantly preaches that everyone pays his or her “fair share,” but not one of Cantrell’s “fair share deals” has been anything more than an elaborate accounting trick where our money is shuffled among the pockets of the capitalists.
Now that Entergy’s profits have been “slashed,” the average consumer will see a $3 savings a month—in the short term. But don’t go splurging on Xmas gifts just yet. Soon customers will be paying $8 or more for the unwanted fracked gas plant and a solar plant.
Everyone should have the right to electricity, heat and clean water. When public utilities are privately owned, profit determines every decision. The devastating fires plaguing California are the latest example: Pacific Gas and Electricity paid millions to executives while their neglect of maintenance killed dozens and displaced thousands of people.
The New Orleans Workers Group demands that public utilities be just that— public, owned by the municipalities that use their services and run by a board of technical professionals and workers responsive to the input of the city’s working class residents.
Title X is a program that provides affordable healthcare options to people with low incomes. Title X was put in the system to give women a right to their own bodies. Donald Trump is now trying to silence women’s voices by taking away the choice of birth control options. Birth control was made for the sole reason to let women choose the option of safer sex and allow more control over their bodies; without it women will no longer have that power within their own skin. 98% of women who have been sexually active have used birth control at one point in their lives.
Trump is trying to criminalize abortions and miscarriages. Back in the day, before birth control methods, some women who got pregnant would use a clothes hanger to abort the fetus because abortion was illegal. It was extremely dangerous but their only option. With abortion now legalized, it gives women a safe way to make their own choices about their bodies. If Donald Trump takes away birth control and makes abortion illegal, it makes women completely stuck.
Planned Parenthood is also at stake. Planned Parenthood helps provide physical, emotional, educational and sexual health care to those who might not be able to afford those services elsewhere. Donald Trump is taking away $60 million in Planned Parenthood funding. If they lose too much money, prices will start going up for patients who already can not afford higher medical prices to begin with.
These laws were put in place to give women their rights to their own bodies. Women who get pregnant should have the right to multiple choices on which way they would like to handle it. Women should also have the right to choose not to get pregnant if that’s where they’re at in their life. But ultimately, it is the woman’s choice. Donald Trump has no right to take away rights that do not affect him.
On Dec. 2, the U.S. Navy announced that it had awarded a $22.2 billion contract to war profiteer General Dynamics to build 9 Navy submarines.
With $22.2 billion, a government could guarantee 740,000 workers a year’s worth of work at $15/hr.
740,000 workers could be distributing food, running nurseries, building rural hospitals, restoring Louisiana wetlands, or caring for our elders.
The U.S. government is a government of the rich for the rich. We are sick, we go hungry in order to fatten a few shareholders at General Dynamics and ExxonMobil. But we, the workers, are millions more than the generals and CEOs. We can replace their rule with ours.
Trump is a racist, woman-hating rapist. Trump is gutting every safety and workers’ rights law he can get his hands on. His tax cuts have handed over billions to the already bloated rich. He is destroying the planet and imprisoning thousands of children. His recent pardon of outright war criminals shows he is trying to build a following among fascist storm troopers and white nationalists—all to funnel more money to the capitalist class.
There are so many reasons to hit the streets like the masses of workers, women, peasants and students are doing around the world. But the Democratic Party is not seeking to unseat Trump over any of these issues. Instead they’re using the impeachment to pander to militarism and promote a dangerous war fever against Russia.
The Democratic Party is trotting out every criminal general, state department official, war monger and CIA agent to testify. This dangerous effort has unfortunately drawn in many liberal and even so-called progressive elements who think anything anti-Trump is great. There are differences between the Democratic and Republican Party. They differ on how to pursue imperialist wars, but not how to end them. Though their methods vary, both capitalist parties want to continue exploitation and profit-making without riling up the people.
You would have to completely ignore the bloody history of world war to think that the Democratic Party can really stop the rise of the right wing, which grows out of both parties’ ever-increasing funding for the war profiteering industries and militarism. Democrats are now taking the position that it’s a crime not to give weapons to Ukraine’s fascist government.
We need to take to the streets to get rid of Trump. This will send a message to the Wall Street Democratic party as well.
The right wing and Trumpism arose out of the capitalist drive for profits and global domination. The Democratic Party pretends to want to protect democracy from Trump while supporting U.S. imperialist intervention around the world, from Bolivia to Honduras to Ukraine and beyond.
We need to unite all the struggles for food, wages, equality, the environment, and housing as they do in other countries. We need to take to the streets to get rid of Trump. This will send a message to the Wall Street Democratic party as well.
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.
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.
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.”
