Global Environmental Crisis: Capitalism, Imperialist War are the Roots of Crisis

South Africa, September 2019.

Only a global organization of the working class is up to the task of halting the climate and environmental crisis.  We must fight to meet the needs of all peoples of the world equally.

By Gavrielle Gemma

Youth climate strikers have forced the environmental crisis on to the world stage. They have also forced the capitalists and all the governments they control to scramble to come up with plans that sound responsive while they protect the profits of the fossil fuel and weapons industries along with the politicians in their pockets.

We must keep the movement going strong in the streets but to succeed, we need to honestly size up the opposition.

President Trump is an enemy of the planet and the people, but the Democratic Party politicians also personally benefit from the status quo. For decades they’ve been totally bought out by the capitalists in charge of oil, chemical, agribusiness, banking and military industries.

We must recognize that though they rule by different methods—one more openly fascist, the other more deceptive—both uphold the rule of capitalism, private property and oil profits. Hillary Clinton received millions from the oil industry and the Saudi Monarchy.

Why do millions starve when there is a global surplus of food? Why are countries bombed for oil? Why is a trillion U.S. tax payer dollars going to war profiteers every year? Why do we continue to use fossil fuels when clean and sustainable energy alternatives are available?

Because capitalists do not care how many millions die and suffer as long as they prosper.

More than ever the movement needs the leadership of those with the most to lose from the global ecological crisis—the workers, the displaced, and the oppressed nations of the world. That’s why we must fight to end capitalism, imperialism, and racism. We must fight for global economic equality.

United Nations is not the answer.
While 193 countries belong to the United Nations, it is controlled by the security council which is made up of superpowers and is dominated by imperialist countries. The United Nations gave cover to the invasions of Iraq and Libya – both wars for oil.

Were the United Nations a real force for the people, its delegates would have marched out of the UN headquarters to a nearby meeting of oil executives and ordered a mass arrest for crimes against humanity and other species. The oil executives had called this emergency meeting to figure out how to rebrand themselves and co-opt the movement.

“The change that needs to take place—the trillions of dollars of investment—is only going to come from companies with resources and scale,” said Ben van Beurden, chief executive of Shell. In other words, please don’t come after us.
If the climate change movement rose up against the $1 trillion a year U.S. military budget, we would have plenty of resources to be used for all the needs of humanity, other species, and the planet. The obscene profits they are sitting on need to be seized by the masses and used for survival, jobs and the environment. Clean energy, water, air, food and medical care cannot be under the control of private profiteers; it must belong to the people.

The climate struggle must recognize the inequality caused by imperialism in order to build solidarity and strengthen the movement.

We cannot fix the climate disaster with individual efforts or by thinking technology is the problem. Posing less air conditioning or more bike-riding as solutions fosters the right-wing phony claim that the movement is elitist. Air conditioning is a health necessity and should be available free to all people in every part of the world that needs it. Safe bike riding is important, but we need clean mass transportation for all. Poor people here and around the world lack these necessities.

Climate struggle and anti-imperialism are two wings of the same bird.
The U.S. Military is a private army for the oil barons, not for democracy.
The U.S. budget is looted for a trillion a year that could be used for social benefits and earth repair. Politicians that support a “Green New Deal” but vote to increase the military budget are dangerous. We cannot fight for the earth without fighting for peace, against the weapons industry, imperialism, inequality, and racism.

Sheer numbers won’t do. On June 12th, 1982 a million people demonstrated in New York city against nuclear power. But its leaders were silent on nuclear weapons and U.S. wars. On the very day of the protest Israel was using U.S. weapons to bomb people in Palestinian refugee camps. A million voices were ignored easily by the government which said, “Let them march and sing, in the end they support us.” No struggle succeeds unless the rulers feel threatened by economic loss or fear that they may lose the people’s allegiance to their rule.

The movement must understand the root cause of the crisis; this will guide us in knowing where and how to build alliances among communities of all nationalities, and between youth and the working class.

The fight to save the planet must be the fight to uproot the cause of the environmental crisis. To win this fight we have to harness the enormous untapped power of the working class who once they know which side they’re on will be unstoppable. Organized, the working class can decide for itself what we will and won’t produce.

A worldwide day of outreach to the workers is the next step.

Let future strikes be led by youth and workers.
We should fight against pipelines and pesticides, and we should fight to save all species threatened by extinction. By mass action we can force change to some laws and this is important. But to save the planet, the human race and all species, to guarantee a healthy future for all the people of the world, it will take an overthrow of the capitalist system which puts profits above life itself.
Unions are joining the effort against climate change; workers are asking why they can’t have jobs that are safe for their communities and grandchildren. Youth of all countries have taken the lead once again, just like they did in the fight for civil rights in the U.S. displaying great courage and determination.

But a strong movement needs to think ahead, think strategically and understand that only with the workers on their side can we win. We will win.

Tell The Rotten Super Rich: “You are the Problem, Not the Refugees!”

President Trump inherited his wealth from his Nazi sympathizing father, then became a billionaire by charging very high rents and excluding Black renters in NYC. He continues to unleash vicious, lying, racist, anti-immigrant tirades against suffering refugees from Central America.

Trump and the ultra-rich loot the U.S. treasury and give it to war profiteering companies. They give themselves a tax cut, refuse to raise wages and accumulate massive amounts of unearned wealth. They discuss in their luxury offices how best to turn attention away from their murderous greed. Their answer is to try to dupe us workers into believing that a lack of “papers” makes us our own enemy. They think that we’re too stupid to know who the real enemy is.

REFUGEE CRISIS MADE IN WASHINGTON & ON WALL STREET

Thousands of desperate refugees, a majority of them families, are traveling hundreds of hard miles to find shelter, food and a future. Do they really want to leave their land, their relatives? Of course not. Take one example, Honduras. In 2009 the Obama/Clinton administration through the CIA, overthrew the elected government in Honduras. This elected government was carrying out reforms that benefited the workers and peasants. The U.S. installed a brutal dictatorship that has murdered many environmentalists, community leaders and imprisoned thousands. The poverty rate has soared since this coup. Trump continues to give weapons and military training to the reactionary government.

To the U.S. capitalists and the politicians in their pockets, any country that tries to free itself from U.S. backed monopolies and raise the standard of living of the people is an enemy. The U.S. condemns Venezuela. Venezuela has just created 2.3 million new homes using money from its oil wealth. But U.S. corporations would prefer to own Venezuela’s oil, and Congress does the bidding of its corporate masters.

U.S. backed corporations require a stock of low wage labor wherever they can get it and it’s the job of the U.S. government to insure that they get it by whatever means—whether trade agreements, sanctions, or bombs. In turn, low wages in other countries bring down wages here. Workers from other countries aren’t to blame for sagging wages, capitalists are.

The refugee crisis was made in Washington and Wall Street. Take the case of Mexico. Trade agreements opened Mexico to the dumping of U.S. corn into Mexico. Corn was a main economic base crop in Mexico. While workers here also got laid off due to plants running away to Mexico, millions of rural Mexican families were pushed off the land, homeless and unemployed. But U.S. agribusiness and Agribanks made billions in profit.

WORKERS HERE SUFFER AT THE HANDS OF THE RICH

The more Trump and the rest of Wall Street, be they Republican or Democrat, attack the living standards of the working class, the more desperately they need scapegoats. Trump has clearly allied his administration with white supremacists for the same reason. They desperately want to turn attention off themselves and have us turn against one another.

The real history of the KKK and other scum like them, is that they are funded by the super wealthy in order to divide us. The bosses can always call on the KKK or other Nazi types to attack a workers’ strike or a struggle for housing. The true origin of these groups was that they were terrorists in the employ of the old slave holders who wanted to get back into power. They attacked voting rights and attacked Black and white sharecroppers uniting for a better life. Many white workers in the south today have low wages, and that is the legacy of racism dividing the workers. In short, racist, anti-immigrant groups are also always working for the superrich and against the workers.

WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES UNITE AGAINST OUR COMMON ENEMY – WALL ST. AND THE PENTAGON

Each of us workers must ask: where do my true interests lie? With the wealthy white rulers in Baton Rouge who just voted against increasing the minimum wage while they live in luxury? With the silver spoon parasite Trump who is attacking workers’ rights and safety regulations? Or do our interests lie with our refugee sisters and brothers?

Capitalism pits workers against one another in competition for jobs. But who sets how many jobs there are and the wages that they pay? The capitalists. Corporations have spent $450 billion buying up their company stocks so their books look good. Are they putting that money into new businesses, new jobs or raising wages? No. Where did they get that $450 billion anyway? From the unpaid labor that they force out of us workers.

What is really disgusting is that they claim that if immigrants were “legal”, we citizen workers would suffer. It is disgusting because just the opposite is true. If any group of workers is discriminated against— especially “legally”— it brings down the wages us all. Exempting farm workers from labor standards, engaging in slave labor in prisons, allowing employers to pay youth less then even the lousy minimum wage, working for food stamps rather than wages, brings down wages for all.

The government works for the rich, not us. Why are there no laws against shipping jobs out of the country? Why does the government allow capitalists to skip out on taxes and stash their stolen wealth in offshore havens? Why does the government support dictators who repress workers in other countries?

We should condemn the capitalists, the bankers, and the real estate developers as the real criminals. Of course it’s easier to take the coward’s route and simmer in hatred rather than fight back against the rich. But that path, we promise, will only bring misery. That path only enables the rich to take more away from you, your children and communities. The greater the unity of all workers, regardless of race or national origin, the better we can fight together to demand what we need.

Parents Rebel Against For-Profit Schools and School Board

Parents filled the School Board meeting chanting “Take back our schools!” and “Erase the board!”

By Nathalie Clarke

In response to the possible closure of five schools, Fisher Academy, McDonogh 32, Nelson Academy, Cypress Academy, and Edgar P. Harney, parents, students, and educators are organizing and fighting back. Friends and Families of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC) first held an action in front of Edgar P. Harney, protesting the unjust investigation of principal Ashonta Wyatt and the closure of the school. All Ms. Wyatt had done was question Harney’s board’s spending and for this she was subsequently fired. When the school board didn’t respond to the protest, FFLIC urged parents, students, and educators to crowd the November 15th Orleans Parish School board meeting.

The board did everything in their power to silence their constituents. They encouraged parents from Cypress Academy not to come, and only released the meeting’s agenda 24 hours before the meeting. They also failed to inform people that in order to make comments they’d not only have to drive to the West Bank in the middle of the work day, but also arrive 30 minutes early to drop off their comment card. Nonetheless, folks took to the podium to voice their anger about the closures and about the way schools in New Orleans have been run since Katrina.

“We are surrounded by failing schools in Louisiana, but New Orleans was the only [district] for sale,” K. T. parent and native New Orleanian commented, referring to the disproportionate privatization of New Orleans schools following Katrina.

“We don’t work for you. You represent us! When did we get asked about these changes?” asked Ashana Bigard, a long-time advocate for children and families and organizer with Friends and Families of Louisiana’s Incarcerated children.

The crowd chanted “Erase the board!” while many concerned parents took to the podium to share their outrage. “Our children deserve better than Cs!” one parent protested.

The vulture capitalists who came in before Katrina’s waters even receded would have us believe that charter schools, so called “free-market” education reforms, give parents more choice and produce better schools because of competition, but any working-class parent in Orleans Parish can tell you this simply isn’t true. The Recovery School District–which took over 105 public schools in 2005 and turned them into charters–is using public money to produce failing schools. There are only 18,500 seats at schools rated “A” or “B” by the State, and 45,000 students vying to get in. Over 80% of schools in the city received a grade of C or less in 2018.

After the board meeting, parents once again rallied in front of Harney school to voice their anger about the school closure and support for Ms. Ashonta Wyatt, the principal who was fired on November 17th despite massive support from parents and the community. The fight continues: FFLIC is calling on folks to persistently show up to board meetings to protest the current state of New Orleans education. The next Orleans Parish School Board meeting will be on December 6th at 5pm.

All children deserve a free, quality education. The New Orleans Workers Group believes in community control of schools–putting schools back in the hands of teachers, parents, students, and workers. The fight to get schools back under community control is not won yet, but parents, educators, and students organizing together is how we will win. The reason the Orleans Parish School Board members feel they can stifle working-class children’s minds with failing schools is because they think we are worthless. They have forgotten our collective power as workers: we make this city run, and we will keep reminding them that they work for us.

“We are tired of being an experiment. They need to return schools to the community.” Parent Deirdre Lewis

Capitalists Reward Hyde-Smith with Millions for Her Racist Taunts

Hyde-Smith pictured at Beauvoir, the Biloxi, MS home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Hyde-Smith posted the photo to Facebook with the caption, “Mississippi history at its best!”

by Joseph Rosen

Cattle rancher and Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi wears her racism on her sleeve. But after a video of her making light of lynching went viral late in her recent campaign for a US Senate seat, some of her more prominent corporate backers like AT&T and Facebook took steps to distance themselves from her, fearing the backlash of public outrage. Fortunately for AT&T and Facebook, their capitalist comrades-in-arms at Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Koch Industries stepped in to pick up the slack. These giant oil monopolies are apparently less concerned with public relations scandals. With the help of some well-heeled financiers and other capitalist crooks, they increased their support for the “embattled” Hyde-Smith by funneling more than $3.2 million through the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a “political party committee,” and the Senate Leadership Fund, a Super PAC.

In the now infamous video, a smiling Hyde-Smith, speaking about one of her fellow ranchers at an all white rally of her supporters, said that “if he’d invited me to a public hanging, I’d be in the front row.” There are more recorded lynchings in Mississippi than in any other state in Amerikkka: in Mississippi alone, at least 654 men, women, and children died during the reign of white supremacist terror lasting between 1877 and 1950. As recently as Feb 18, 2018, 21 year old Willie Jones Jr. was found hanging from a tree outside his child’s mother’s home in Scott County, MS. His family is still demanding a thorough investigation. Meanwhile, on December 17 the racist Hyde-Smith was sworn in to Congress.

As she has always done, Hyde-Smith will reward those who help to keep her in power. She will continue to pursue tax cuts for the rich and she will continue to lavish tax-payer money on the oil-hungry Pentagon as well as her friends in Agribusiness. And whether by denying us healthcare or by poisoning our water, she will continue her war on working and oppressed people— only she’ll be even more free to whip up racist terror as an answer to our struggle for liberation. For $3.2 million, the capitalists bought this license for her and they expect a return on their investment.

We must fight to remove this bigot from power but we have to go further to prevent that she ever returns. We can only be rid of the Hyde-Smiths of the world once we are rid of the capitalists to whom they answer; we must replace their rule with ours.

Student Debt: Who’s Profiting?

Student debt in the US now totals over $1.48 trillion, which is way higher than any other debt in the country. But one person’s debt is another’s asset. Lenders of student debt put together “packages” that tally up all that they’ve lent out to students. Then, they make fast cash selling these packages to big banks with enough money to play around with these investments, like Wells Fargo or Bank of America. These banks then reap all the profits from the interest that former students have to pay—and that’s guaranteed free money for them, since it’s almost impossible to declare bankruptcy on student debt and banks are legally allowed to take from your wages, unemployment benefits, and Social Security checks. The market for this kind of trading is $200 billion, all pocketed by wealthy capitalists who lobby Congress on issues like these regularly.

THE 1907 NEW ORLEANS DOCKWORKERS GENERAL STRIKE

Unionized dockworkers rejected bosses’ white supremacist divide-and-conquer campaign and upheld bi-racial working-class solidarity.

by Malcolm Suber

In the early twentieth century, New Orleans’ unionized dockworkers demonstrated the absolute importance of bi-racial working-class solidarity and rejected the bosses’ use of white supremacy to quash working class aspirations to advance their living conditions. They were following in the footsteps of New Orleans workers who led the general strike of 1892.

A legacy of the 1892 General Strike was the effort to maintain a 50-50, or half-and-half, labor system on the New Orleans docks. Under this arrangement, both Black and white workers insisted that any work crew hired by ship owners be 50% Black and 50% percent white. Workers would labor side by side, performing the same work for the same pay. This was understood by the dockworkers as a tactic to prevent the bosses from lowering all wages by pitting workers against each other by offering more to one group of workers than the other. Both Black and white union leaders recognized that when the owners were allowed to hire without parity between black and white workers, as was the practice before the 1892 General Strike, animosity between black and white workers flared and the working class as a whole suffered a setback.

In October 1901, the separate Black and white unions created the Dock and Cotton Council (DCC) that coordinated the unions of Black and white screwmen, longshoremen, teamsters, loaders and general laborers on the waterfront. An accommodation to the Jim Crow white supremacist system required that the President and financial secretary of the DCC be held by white workers and the vice-presidency and corresponding secretary position be held by black workers. By 1903, the DCC oversaw eight separate unions of Black and white dockworkers with a total of approximately 10,000 members and helped ensure that all unions adhered to the 50-50 rule. In time, the DCC assisted member unions in negotiations with the owners. The DCC was also given the right to call a general port strike.

The New Orleans screwmen were responsible for tightly packing cotton bales in the holds of the ships. This critical task put them atop the labor force on the docks thus providing the screwmen with the highest wages on the docks. However, in contrast to other waterfront laborers, white screwmen in the 1890s refused the 50- 50 arrangements and voted for a quota system limiting the number of black screwmen to a small percentage of the jobs.The black and white locals had separate contracts with different terms and there was no way to support workers in labor disputes. In addition, rumors began to spread that the shipping agents were trying to find ways to remove the 75-bale per day limit instituted by the white screwmen by using black screwmen who would work for lower wages with no limit on bales stowed. These types of racial division led to bloody fights between the screwmen.

By the turn of the twentieth century, all screwmen faced new pressure from the ship owners to increase their output by introducing a new method of loading the cotton bales known as “shoot-the-chute”. This system required crews of 4-5 men to throw down between 400 to 700 bales per day into the holds of ships where other workers waited to pack them. This new system required 4 to 5 times more productivity with no raise in pay. In addition, the work day would no longer be determined by the number of bales but by the whistle of the shipping agent. The screwmen could see that this faster pace would mean less work left for the next day, thus depriving them of pay.

The issue of a fair day’s work and pay became the central issue for the screwmen. In April,1902 the employers’ Steamship Conference declared that only the owners and not any contract had the right to control who worked on the docks and for how long and for what pay.The screwmen fiercely resisted this attack on their living standards. The two screwmen unions agreed to the 50-50 rule; a uniform wage scale limiting the days’ work to 120 bales as opposed the SC demand 400-700. In the fall of 1902, the unions jointly presented their demands to the steamship conference.

The screwmen’s alliance launched a series of strikes from 1902-1903 that forced the Steamship Conference to adopt the production rate and adhere to the 50-50 demands. During these strikes, the screwmen enjoyed the backing of the other waterfront unions and the newly formed DCC.

The bosses tried to break the strike by the usual divide and conquer scheme by spreading a rumor that the black screwmen were violating the agreement and getting more work than white workers. The strike remained united and ended in early December 1902; by December 25 screwmen were packing on average 110 bales per day.
In response to the screwmen’s strike, the bosses instituted two lockouts in 1903. Again, pressing for control of hiring and more production from the screwmen. The screwmen held firm and the bosses were unable to impose new labor standards.

The screwmen were again locked out on October 1, 1903, but they received the support of black and white longshoremen. Shippers led for an injunction and Mayor Paul Capdevielle unsuccessfully tried to mediate. The strikers garnered so much support during the two-week lockout that even scabs refused to cross their lines. Ultimately, the lockout ended when the employers proposed terms that required screwmen to produce 160 bales per day. The unions accepted this proposal and the bosses admitted defeat.

In the fall of 1907, both black and white longshore workers launched an extended general strike against the shipping company bosses. As in 1902-03, screwmen were at the center of the struggle as the bosses resented the contract concessions made in the 1903. When the 1903 contract expired on September 1, 1907, the ship owners sought what they called a ‘parity’ argument, demanding that New Orleans screwmen stow as much cotton as their counterparts in Galveston, TX – a rate of 200 bales per day. On October 4, all of the ship owners locked out the screwmen. In response, the DCC called a general strike. 9000 dockworkers, black and white, struck the New Orleans port in a show of solidarity with the screwmen. Freight handlers from the Southern Paci c line also struck, ending all work on the port.

The bosses responded by bringing in black and white strikebreakers. Some of the strikebreakers quit when they learned they were being used by the bosses and by the extraordinary show of support by entire working class of New Orleans.

During the second week of the strike the owners launched a strong attempt to divide and conquer the unions along racial lines. The owners revived the White League to attempt to intimidate Black strikers. They also appealed to the other dockworkers that this was a fight against the screwmen and they should not lose wages supporting their strike.

On October 11, the screwmen proposed a return to work at the rate of 160 bales per day. The bosses rejected this proposal and demand a rate of 200 bales per day. During the impasse, the bosses worked overtime to divide the workers along racial lines by circulating rumors that the white workers had returned to work, or alternately, that the black workers were returning to work. However, labor solidarity held.

The general strike ended on October 24, 1907 with a compromise plan endorsed and urged by the city’s mayor. Under the compromise, screwmen agreed to return to work at the rate of 180 bales per day. In response to union demands, the agreement included provisions for an investigation into the port’s viability. White supremacy clearly emerged as the screwmen appointed their representatives to the investigative committee along the 50- 50 principle- but white ship owners refused to work with the black representatives. When no resolution could be reached with the racist ship owners, the mayor and state legislature appointed a committee to investigate port conditions. Its focus was cross-racial cooperation among the workers on the New Orleans docks. This cooperation of course violated all norms of Jim Crow segregation. The DCC unions rejected the pressure and held out for working class solidarity to advance working conditions.

WORKER’S LETTER


By Ryan Jones

Three years ago I was a full-time worker at Burger King and like many others, my experience was not good. I was working five days a week, making the federal minimum wage, which is 7.25 an hour. Working full-time i was making $700 a month, which is not a livable wage. Not only was I supporting myself, but also my family. I didn’t receive breaks, and was required to fill multiple positions in the workplace. Like many workplaces, Burger King kept minimum staff on, expecting workers to take on the workloads of multiple people, cutting back on costs at the expense of us workers. The managers would often be aggressive towards workers, yelling at us, snatching our phones away (taking our personal property). They would often yell at us about not “doing our jobs” while we were busting our asses!

They electronically deposited our checks, so we didn’t get our check stubs in person. You could access them online, but without smartphones or computers, it can be very difficult to check and make sure your pay & hours are done right. We in the industry know it’s very common for bosses to shave a couple hours off workers’ checks. They often do this in ways that aren’t noticeable, leaving many workers experiencing wage theft without even realizing it. This is why it’s very important that we have access to our pay stubs.

I feel we should get our pay stubs in person, so we can better hold our bosses accountable. I also feel like everybody should get paid breaks, and a free shift meal. All workers should get a living wage, which at the minimum should be $15 dollars an hour. We all should have a union, so we have the power to demand the dignity and respect we deserve in the workplace. We as workers must make our voices heard, and demand the bosses start listening to what we have to say. We need to get organized as working people. Our bosses aren’t going to give us our rights, we must demand them. We gotta shut shit down.

The Bayou Bridge Pipeline Hurts Louisiana

by James York

People everywhere face an uncertain future due to climate change. That is especially true in south Louisiana, where the combination of sea level rise and disappearing coastal wetlands will force many residents to leave within decades. It is undeniable that most of the damage to this area is due to oil and gas exploration and production, and it is undeniable that we are facing a $50 billion budget shortfall just to fund the megaprojects that are supposed to provide some protection against coastal erosion.

In this light, the economic development statistics offered by the proponents of the Bayou Bridge Pipeline are absurd. In exchange for destroying 150 acres of forested wetland and “temporarily impacting” 450 more to build 163 miles of oil pipeline through the Atchafalaya Basin, Our vehemently pro-oil state government has we are being offered only $1.8 million per year in taxes paid to the state and 12 permanent jobs. While the pipeline will continue to make money for its owners and funders year after year, we the people will see nothing for this damage to the wetlands. Pipelines reduce the wetlands’ ability to protect cities and infrastructure from flooding due to hurricanes and irreparably change the hydrology of the affected area, damaging wildlife habitat. We also face the possibility of an oil spill that would threaten the drinking water of some 300,000 people and one of the most productive wetlands in the world, the heart of our $1 billion per year seafood industry. With that in mind, one would expect a reasonable government to say”no” to an obviously bad deal, but in Louisiana we are not so lucky. Our vehemently pro-oil state government has done the opposite (even with a Democratic Party governor).They have given Energy Transfer Partners, the oil corporation behind the hated pipeline, free reign to build despite ongoing legal challenges and violence by local sheriffs that they have hired for off-duty work as private security.

The state government has introduced new legislation in the past three months that pins felony terrorism charges on water protectors who are exercising their first amendment right to peacefully protest. These brave people of the L’eau Est La Vie (Water is Life) camp are living near the pipeline construction and standing up for all of our right to say NO to these projects that could damage our communities forever. Their work can be followed at nobbp.org.

Arrest the Cops Who Murdered Keeven Robinson

The family of Keeven Robinson and the Jefferson Parish NAACP demand cops’ arrest

On May 10, 2018 Keeven Robinson was choked to death by four white cops. The Parish coroner has ruled it a homicide. But the cops are still on desk duty. Taxpayers are still paying their salaries. The police cannot act as judge, jury, and executioner. The murder occurred in the course of arresting Keeven who the cops had been following on nothing more than “suspicion” which smacks of racial profiling.

“I am not comfortable knowing the people who took my brother’s life in cold blood are just walking around like nothing is going on and (are) still getting paid,” Robinson’s younger brother, Randy Martin Jr., told reporters on November 28. “They were getting paid when they took my brother’s life, and they are still getting paid today.”

BRUTAL SAUDI DICTATORSHIP LONG ALLY TO THE U.S.

TEARS FOR KASHOGGI BUT NOT FOR GENOCIDE IN YEMEN

For decades during which tens of thousands of people have died at the hands of the Saudi monarchy, the U.S. government proclaimed the Saudi kings their great friends and allies. Whether Republican or Democrat it was all the same. Now there is outrage over their murder of Kashoggi while the Yemeni people are facing bombings, famine and genocide at the hands of the royal family with U.S. military support.

It is painful to see all the tears for Kashoggi while no action on Yemen is planned except a resolution in Congress that is not considered urgent even as the bombing intensifies.

The U.S. Saudi alliance goes back decades. First England and then the U.S. government supported the absolutist reign of the Saudi kings for two purposes: to help put down the Arab masses in their fight to free themselves from foreign domination and to control the vast oil fields of Saudi Arabia. They promised the Saudi kings weapons, money, political recognition and the right of the kings to total control and wealth if they carried out the interests of the U.S. capitalists, especially the oil companies.

So-called liberal Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that “the defense of Saudi Arabia is vital to the defense of the United States.” On 14 February 1945, he met with King Ibn Saud aboard the USS QUINCY to discuss the creation of Israel on Palestinian land.

The Trump family has deep ties to the Saudi monarchy both personally and on behalf of war profiteers and oil companies. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, was acting as ambassador without confirmation. Recently Trump, always a salesman for the war profiteering U.S. military corporations, signed a $110 billion arms sale with King Al Saud, part of a $350 billion economic and military package.

DEMOCRATS LOVE THE SAUDI KINGS, ESPECIALLY HILLARY CLINTON

But it’s not just the Republicans. President Obama and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton loved the Saudi kings. According to the International Business Times BT during the three full years of Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state (FY 2010-12), the department approved commercial arms sales worth a total of $165 billion to twenty nations whose governments had given to the Clinton Foundation — nearly double the total sales to those countries approved in FY 2006-08, during President George W. Bush’s second term.

Arms exports to Saudi Arabia totaling $8 billion were approved in FY 2010-12 — up from $4.1 billion in FY 2006-08 — including $29 billion worth of advanced fighter jets delivered by a consortium of American defense contractors led by Boeing. In the years before Clinton became secretary of state, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia contributed at least $10 million to the Clinton Foundation, while Boeing contributed $900,000 to the foundation just two months before the deal was finalized.

According to IBT, governments and corporations involved in the arms deals approved by the State Department have contributed between $54 million and $141 million to the Clinton Foundation, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to the Clinton family in the form of speaking fees.

KASHOGGI MURDER UPSET CAPITALISTS – HE WAS ONE OF THEM.

Kashoggi comes from an ultra rich family loyal to the royal family. He became a critic of the Kings in order to protect the legitimacy of their rule. His uncle was the infamous Adnan Kashoggi, who helped Oliver North provide weapons to the brutal contras (right wing death squads) in Nicaragua. These arms were banned by Congress, but North (now head of the NRA) funded the arms by importing drugs which then flooded the U.S. The main airports that received these shipments of drugs were New Orleans military bases. Just recently the Saudis murdered another journalist who was a real opponent of the Saudi kings, and beheaded a domestic worker (they are treated like slaves in Saudi Arabia) with no mention in the big business media.

Boys inspect graves prepared for victims of an air strike in Saada province, Yemen, which killed 40 children on their way to school

GENOCIDE IN YEMEN

Yemen had actually freed itself from the grips of the Saudi regime decades ago and attempted to build a socialist country. This was militarily crushed by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi monarchy wants to annex Yemen and prevent the masses from reasserting their independence. To this end, with U.S. weapons and military support, tens of thousands of Yemenis, mostly civilians, have been murdered. Because of the bombing of sewage plants and blockade of medicine by the Saudis, Yemen is facing the biggest cholera epidemic in world history. The continued Saudi/U.S. assault on Yemen puts 14 million Yemenis at risk of death by starvation and disease.

CONGRESS – A LIMP RESOLUTION. CUT ALL TIES TO THE HOUSE OF SAUD

We are talking about out genocide of civilians by a fascist government that has been going on for years. Yet Congress is merely “considering” a resolution against more arms to the Saudi kings. Even this has been sitting in Congress with no urgency or determination to pass it. Both parties of capitalism, the Democrats and Republicans are wary of upsetting their loyal partner in the Middle East. But we workers have no problem demanding an end to all U.S. support for the Saudi kings and their war against Yemen—not with our tax dollars and not in our name.