Fight Transphobia! Solidarity With Trans Youth and Their Parents!

State Lawmakers Across the Country Promote Anti-Trans Bills to Terrorize and Divide Workers!

Stop the War on Trans People! Protect Trans Kids!

Demand Healthcare, Not War!

By Sally Jane Black

Imagine if your child was taken away from you because you got them life-saving medical care.

Imagine if loving and supporting your child was considered child abuse.

This is what the state of Texas has decreed.

Last month Governor Abbott and Texas Attorney General Paxton sent “guidance” to state agencies to consider all forms of gender-affirming healthcare “child abuse”. Last week, state agencies began the process to removing trans children from their parents’ care, threatening parents, and suspending them from their jobs.

Recent studies have shown that receiving trans-related healthcare reduces suicide rates among trans youth by a staggering 73%. Access to trans healthcare is a matter of life and death, and the alleged regrets cited by detractors have been proven to be extremely rare. The state of Texas is trying to drive trans children to suicide and destroy families. Already, members of hate-groups are boasting online about turning trans youth and their families in.

The U.S. has a long history of stealing children from their parents as an act of violence against the oppressed. Whether it is separating migrant families or among the enslaved or indigenous people, the theft of children has been a common practice. In recent years, many of these children have been disappeared into underfunded and often abusive foster care systems. Trans children will fare no better.

Anti-Trans Bills Across the Country Written by Billionaire-Funded Hate Groups

Texas is not alone. This is the latest in a long series of attacks on trans children started years ago. This year alone, over 150 bills have been submitted to state legislatures that target trans youth participation in sports, use of public bathrooms, trans healthcare access, updating IDs and birth certificates, and teaching LGBTQ topics in schools. In response to this, Biden paid lip service to trans children in the State of the Union while doing absolutely nothing to help, going so far as to label the Texas attacks as “government overreach”—therefore tacitly endorsing the sentiment while only mildly rebuking the methods.

In Utah, a proposed law would set up a commission to study all student athletes—trans or not—and their bodies. This is an escalation of the policies attempted in other states where children’s genitals would be investigated by adults in order to let them play sports.  Meanwhile, Florida has passed an updated version of the “Don’t Say Gay” laws of previous decades, removing all references to queer and trans people from their schools. In Mississippi, a similar law is bundled with banning the teaching of the history of racism in the United States.

It is not a coincidence that so many laws have identical language across dozens of states, nor that these attacks are happening alongside anti-abortion measures and racist bans on Black and Indigenous history. These laws have been written by right-wing hate-groups masquerading as “think tanks” and “foundations” funded by the likes of the Koch and Walton families and other capitalists. In Florida, the “Don’t Say Gay” law’s backers were all well paid by the allegedly queer-friendly Disney corporation. They want to maximize profits by restricting the rights of women so that they can continue to pay less to all workers. Women have been in the forefront of recent unionizing. They are for a policy that will put women back to exclusively unpaid work in the kitchen and nurseries.

There is no place for trans or queer people in that world view, and so they seek to drive trans and gender non-conforming people back into hiding. And by wrapping it up in the language of religion, and fear and ignorance, they divide workers instead of the rich elites who are behind this.

These laws are part of the ongoing anti-science agenda of the rich. They seek to keep the working class ignorant in order to better control and exploit us. The “science” they cite to attack trans people flies in the face of the biological, historical facts of gender, which does not conform to the simple categories the capitalists want to force us into. The lies they spread about science, such as their anti-vaxx campaigns and anti-abortion legislation (which often requires doctors to lie about dangers of abortion) serve to make the public distrust science and healthcare, keeping us sick, uninformed, and misled.

Students Walk Out in Florida! Only a Movement in the Streets Can Beat Back Attacks on LGBT People

Trans people and other workers have engaged in protests in Utah and Texas in response to these attacks, and 500 high school students from across Florida walked out in protest of the “Don’t Say Gay” laws. Student organizer Jack Petocz was suspended indefinitely by his high school for leading the protest. We must stand in solidarity with Jack and all who have stood up to the attacks and follow their example.

We cannot afford to count on millionaires running the courts or Congress to do the right thing. This is an act of terror against trans people and those that support us. The message is clear: trans people are to be excluded from public life and driven back into the closet (or to suicide) and anyone who supports us will be arrested or worse. The only answer to these attacks is solidarity with trans people and their parents. While the numerous lawsuits against these attacks are appreciated, they are doomed to be repeated next year without a movement backing them up. Trans people cannot defeat these attacks alone. We must build solidarity with cisgender (non-trans) people by going directly to workers. We must continue what many have already begun in Texas, Florida, and Utah and protest in the streets and disrupt capitalists’ profits.

Many who have rightfully expressed outrage at these attacks have wrongfully targeted cisgender people as the cause of the attacks, ignoring that every single one of these laws will hurt cisgender people as well as transgender people. While it is trans children who will be driven to suicide and trans adults who are forced to work for pennies, it is often cisgender parents who will see their children taken from them and cisgender adults who do not fit the narrow capitalist labels of “man” and “woman” who will face harassment in public bathrooms as well. When trans and non-trans workers are under attack by the government, it is not time to fight amongst ourselves, but to unite against the wealthy parasites who are responsible for them.

Corporate Media Spreads Lies About Trans People

In recent months, hatred of trans people has been promoted by mainstream media and personalities, including JK Rowling and Dave Chappelle. Both have been rewarded for their bigotry with lucrative contracts or major movie releases that will continue to make them millions. Disgustingly, they wrap their bigotry and violence by sickeningly calling their transphobia “feminism” in order to pit trans women against non-trans women. They use their platforms to fear-monger and imply that trans people, especially trans women, are sexual predators or pedophiles, just as they did with gay people in the past. Women’s rights (including trans women) and LGBTQ rights are two wings of the same bird, and we fight the same bigotry and gender violence together.

Meanwhile, last year was the deadliest year on record for trans people in the U.S., with 56 murdered that we know of, and recent studies have shown that trans women make 60 cents on the dollar to what the average worker makes. It is not trans people who are the predators, but the politicians and their corporate sponsors who use trans people to buy votes and divide people.

Though trans people have existed as long as human beings have, the repression of trans people has led to the misunderstanding that being transgender is a new phenomenon. Trans people have always been here and always will be. In the last century, however, medical treatments for trans people have made great advances, allowing for medical transition for those who want it. However, the rich have made it inaccessible for most trans people, denying insurance coverage for hormones or surgeries and making excessive requirements that no other forms of healthcare have. They would have you believe that trans children are regularly having major surgeries, but the truth is, trans adults can barely access them. Most trans youth are put on medication that simply delays certain parts of puberty so that they can make a decision about their bodies once they are adults—exactly the opposite of the non-reversible procedures being talked about by corporate media.

We Must Unite Workers of All Genders!

Meanwhile, U.S. bombs are killing workers in Yemen, Somalia, and Ukraine. The rich have murdered millions by refusing to do anything to fight COVID. And it is not a coincidence that the far-right movement is gaining strength as the left-wing movement in this country waits passively for corporate lackeys like Biden, Pelosi, or Sanders to do anything at all to help workers. Instead of spending $770 billion on war, the U.S. should be funding healthcare for all, and we must unite to demand all trans healthcare be covered for youth and adults. We must not put faith in Democrats to stand up to these attacks or to fight the fascists. Every attack on trans people is an attack on workers as a whole. The capitalists want to tell us who and what we are, controlling everything from our healthcare and jobs to our IDs and even the clothes we wear.

The Struggle of LGBTQ People Brought Broad Acceptance and Support

We Need to Go Back to the Streets, Not Back to the Past

There is no doubt that the powerful movement led by militant LGBTQ people changed society. There has been immense acceptance, support and appreciation in society as a whole, the likes of which a mere 50 years ago was a distant dream. This struggle in fact released hundreds of millions from sexual repression. It is proof that it is the movement, the struggle, the fight that changes society and laws.

Transphobia Comes from the Top Down, Just like Misogyny, and White Supremacy

Capitalists Are Desperate Attempt to Maximize Profit, Divide the Working Class by Increased Repression

We can again mobilize and go to all students and workers to build a militant movement that will make the capitalists too afraid to try these same tactics again. Cisgender workers must stand with trans workers, and trans workers must not cower in fear or refuse to speak to those who have not yet seen past the anti-trans lies spread by corporate media. Trans workers cannot wait until it is “safe” to come out and speak to other workers. And when we (trans or cis) go to the workers, we must be direct and clear in our message about solidarity with trans people.

The capitalists have indoctrinated many in the working class with bigoted ideas—and they then turn around denounce them as “deplorables” for not using the right language. We cannot be like our oppressors and hide behind insistence on specific words and phrases for the sake of our own comfort or correctness, but be prepared and patient, clear and firm in our explanations. We must combat hate speech or intentional disrespect, but to reject reaching out to workers instead of combatting ignorance is to allow our oppressors to win. We owe it to ourselves to do this work.

Stop the US/NATO Encirclement of Russia

Money for Jobs, Healthcare, Income Support Not War Profiteers!

US-Trained-and-Funded Ukrainian Nazi Troops Bombing Civilians For Years

The war in Ukraine did not start yesterday. With full U.S. backing, Ukraine has been bombing and shelling the antifascist resistance fighters in the Donbass for eight years, killing at least 14,000 men, women, and children. For eight years Ukrainians have endured the daily terror of fascist raids and terrorist assaults by U.S.-armed-and-trained Gestapo forces that came to power in 2014 when the U.S. enlisted Nazis to violently remove the elected government and install a puppet regime.

Fascists in groups like the Right Sector and the Azov battalion are no different from the KKK.  These are the same forces that besieged and set fire to a union hall in Odessa in 2014, burning alive more than 40 antifascist resisters inside.

The move for a referendum in Crimea where residents voted to rejoin Russia and the move to establish the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk were defensive measures against the daily incursions of swastika-waving thugs terrorizing the population.

These Nazis act as shock troops for U.S.-enforced austerity, which means the ripping away of all social benefits and support for workers for the benefit of the rich. As soon as the U.S. puppet regime was installed in 2014, the living standards of Ukrainians fell as the U.S.-controlled International Monetary Fund demanded that the Ukrainian government purchase U.S. weapons and cut government pensions, education, health care, and social programs. These attacks have reduced Ukraine to the poorest country in Europe while it has become one of the top purchasers of U.S. weapons.

War profiteers treat working people in the U.S. the same way they do the workers of Ukraine: they rob us of the things we need by raiding our federal budget to the tune of $1.2 trillion dollars a year. As police and military budgets balloon, cuts to social programs, rising prices, etc., are making life unbearable for workers. We have an interest in common with the antifascist resisters of the Donbass, who don’t want to be strangled by U.S. war-profiteering and energy companies.

Reject the Corporate Media Lies, Stand Up to U.S. Imperialism, End All U.S. Sanctions

Since 2014, the U.S. has aggressively moved to build up the Ukrainian military and groom it for NATO membership. U.S.-supplied weapons in Ukraine are aimed at Russia. U.S. nuclear weapons have been positioned in neighboring NATO countries. Imagine if Russia had 29 installations surrounding the U.S., with nuclear weapons aimed at our city centers!

Agreements that were reached twice in Minsk giving partial sovereignty to the Republics of the Donbass and to establish cease-fires have been violated thousands of times by the government in Kiev. After years of attempts at diplomacy, Russia has finally resorted to military means to neutralize the threat of an attack. This is an act of defense. They have fired on military installations in Ukraine and have committed troops to aid the anti-fascist defenders of the Donbass.

The U.S. has leveled brutal sanctions against Russia in response. U.S. sanctions have killed millions around the world through poverty and starvation. Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright even admitted that U.S. sanctions were responsible for the death of 500,000 Iraqi children. For the sake of the people of Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Iran, etc., all people of conscience must demand an end to this inhumane form of U.S. warfare.

U.S. media will have you believe that Russia has been the aggressor despite the extreme escalation of U.S./Ukraine attacks on the Donbass in recent months which has forced Russia’s hand. Others take a cowardly “both sides are wrong” position that allows them to wring their hands and do nothing. This is the same as supporting U.S. imperialism and Ukrainian fascism. The allegedly “left wing” Democracy Now is a prime example, having fallen in line with the far-right by characterizing the removal of Nazis from Ukraine as an assault on Ukrainian nationalism, which is very convenient for the Nazis and an insult the Ukrainians who have been violently oppressed by the fascists.

From their brand-new iPhones, some of these “both sides are wrong” types have finally typed the word “imperialism” for the first time in their lives, hypocritically slinging it at Russia while living in the U.S., the most violent, destructive, exploitative imperialist country in human history. Meanwhile, the right wing in the U.S. is cheering to see their white nationalist brethren glorified by the U.S. media.

U.S. wars, interventions = mass murder for corporate profits

NATO, U.S. AFRICOM = Neocolonial armies for capitalist plunder

No country that has suffered a U.S. intervention, occupation, or coup has ever come out better for it. Over 23 million people in Afghanistan face starvation after 20 years of U.S. war and occupation. While U.S. soldiers guarded poppy fields and pipelines, millions were driven from their homes. The war only worsened conditions for a country which already had its popular democratic government ousted by U.S.-armed and trained Taliban and Mujahideen in 1978.

Whether the open slave markets in Libya after the 2014 bombing campaign or the extreme U.S.-backed repression in South Korea and Taiwan, or the complete disregard of even the slightest show of democracy in Iraq, the results of U.S. “humanitarianism” are crimes against humanity. What was “humanitarian” about the 80,000 tons of bombs dropped by NATO on the former Yugoslavia? U.S./NATO wars have resulted in poverty so severe that life expectancy rates plummet by decades.

The U.S. invokes the defense of Ukrainian “sovereignty” as it ships weapons to fascist Ukraine. At the same time, they are bombing Somalia and expanding their network of military bases in Africa in to enforce brutal neo-colonial rule for maximum corporate profits. NATO and U.S. AFRICOM attacks are flagrant violations of the right of Africans to determine their own national destiny.

Is the U.S. really arming Nazis?

Yes. They fly the swastika, and they are officially part of the Ukrainian military and government. The Ukrainian National Guard–which counts the Nazi Azov battalion in its ranks—was created with the direct assistance of the U.S. government. The Ukrainian government have erected statues to the Nazi Ukrainian Stephan Bandera and have taken down monuments to heroes who fought the Nazis. 

The U.S. has a long history of using fascist death squads to enforce capitalist exploitation, and the U.S. continues to condemn armed resistance to Nazism and white supremacy. Never forget that the U.S. propped up the fascist apartheid state of South Africa and designated Nelson Mandela a terrorist. Today, the U.S. funds and arms the fascist, apartheid Israeli government and considers Palestinian freedom fighters terrorists.

The U.S. armed and trained Nazis are the forces leading the attacks on the Donbass. They openly state their goal is to rid the world of people of color, Jews and “undesirables.” The Ukrainian government acts at their mercy for fear of withdrawal of U.S. support.

Fortunately, many Ukrainian soldiers have put down their weapons. Some are even bravely turning their guns on Nazi commanding officers now that the fighters of the Donbass are on a counter-offensive. According to the People’s Militia of the DPR, fifteen soldiers with the Ukrainian Army’s 57th Mechanized Infantry Unit rejected their orders then joined the separatist militias. The working class of Ukraine is suffering at the hands of these Nazis as well.

Why Is the U.S. Even in Ukraine? Military Profits and Fossil Fuels

The U.S. wants the natural gas and resources of Ukraine and Russia, just like it does in Africa and everywhere else around the world. U.S. politicians make little effort to hide this. Biden’s own son was put the board of Ukrainian gas company after the 2014 coup and was milking the Ukrainian people for $60,000 a month while thousands of workers were being laid off.

War and oil profits are all the U.S. capitalists care about, and they will cause the deaths of millions to get them.  

Workers should demand the immediate withdrawal of all support for the fascist Ukrainian government. We need funds for healthcare, childcare, and income support not for white supremacist death squads!

Download full flyer here.

Money for Children, Youth, COVID Relief Not War Profiteers

U.S./NATO/Ukraine Planning Massacre of Donbass Anti-Fascist Fighters

Barricades outside the Donetsk regional administration building plastered with anti-fascist posters.

A message from Andrey Kochetov, a labor leader in the Lugansk People’s Republic:

“Now the situation around our Republics is very serious. Ukraine brought to the front line about 125,000 soldiers of Ukrainian Army and murders from Nazi battalions. Many foreign instructors came to train Ukrainian soldiers.

“But mass media of US and EU says about “Russian aggression”. But we can’t see any Russian troops on our territory. We hope that common sense and wisdom will win and the world doesn’t fall into war.

“We still remember that Ukrainian authorities decided to drop bombs on the heads of Donbass residents instead of sitting down at the negotiating table. And we will never forget that only Russia, not so-called “civilized world”, gave us real help, support and defense.

“It is difficult to make any prognosis right now. We just see US push Ukraine into the war very hard. It is terrible but it is so!

“What you can do for us? Thanks to Russia we not suffer from hunger. Only one thing we need. Your support and help us dissemination of real information about the situation in our Republics.”

We Need Money For Workers Welfare, Not for Capitalist Warfare

The monthly child supplement has been cut and millions are facing eviction and foreclosure. Millions are denied childcare and affordable health care. COVID is overwhelming hospitals and killing people by the thousands. Republicans and Democrats have rushed to spend another $500 million on weapons to send to the Ukrainian army and its allied Nazi paramilitaries which have been terrorizing people. That $500 million is destined for the pockets of the U.S. military corporations which already make record profits and already loot 65% of our federal tax dollars for themselves.

Why is the U.S. in the Ukraine anyway?

Members of the Ukrainian National Guard flying NATO flag, the flag of the Azov battalion, and the Nazi swastika.

The U.S. has no interest in protecting the Ukrainian people. They want to build another military base on the Russian border. Imagine if Russia wanted to do the same in Mexico.

The corporate media outlets that falsely claim that the U.S. is defending Ukrainian sovereignty don’t mention that when Biden was Vice President, the U.S. orchestrated a fascist-led coup in 2014 that forced mass layoffs, price increases, cuts to social programs, and open terror on the Ukrainian people. Nor do they mention the $2.4 billion U.S. taxpayer dollars used to build up the swastika-flying militias of the Ukrainian National Guard who have killed more than 14,000 people in their 8-year bombing war on the Donbass in eastern Ukraine. These are the reasons that the people of the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in the Donbass and the republic in Crimea are determined to be independent from Ukraine. Russia did not invade or seize Crimea; after the 2014 coup, the people voted overwhelmingly to disassociate from fascist Ukraine.

Solidarity with Anti-Fascist Fighters in Donbass and Ukraine

By now 150,000 U.S.-armed and -trained Ukrainian troops have amassed at the border of the People’s Republics of the Donbass located between Ukraine and Russia. They have been supplied with 250 tons of military equipment and ammunition (which corporate media has tried to hide in plain sight by calling it “lethal aid”) by the U.S. They are reinforced by U.S./NATO deployed jets, warships, and nuclear-armed submarines.  

By attempting to crush the anti-fascist resistance in the Donbass and advance U.S./NATO forces up to the Russian border, the U.S. is daring Russia to respond. Even the Ukrainian government has asked the U.S. to pull back but the capitalists in control of the U.S. and NATO have their eye on the vast energy reserves and infrastructure in the Donbass and Russia.

The U.S. government has declared that the world belongs to its capitalists and has 800 foreign military bases to enforce that ownership. Russia has a handful of bases in former Soviet states. Russia’s troops are on its own western border in defense of its territory. The “imminent Russian invasion” being hyped by the corporate U.S. media is a lie being peddled on behalf of U.S. arms manufacturers and oil and gas companies hungry for new sources of profit. These lies are no different from the ones told about WMDs in Iraq 20 years ago.

Working people have no interest in another rich man’s war.

Join us in saying no more blood for oil!

Massive Strikes and Mobilizations in Kazakhstan Push Back Against 30 years of Capitalist Dictatorship

Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan is asking for international solidarity in light of the massive strikes and mobilizations of workers which have been met with brutal repression from the government. They are demanding::

• An immediate end to hostilities against their people and the withdrawal of troops from the cities
• Immediate resignation of all Nazarbayev officials, including President Tokayev
• Release of all political prisoners and detainees
• Ensuring the right for workers to create their own trade unions and political parties and to hold strikes and meetings
• Legalization of the activities of the banned Communist Party of Kazakhstan and the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan
• The Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan calls on all the workers and working people of the country to implement in practice the demand of the executed oil workers of Zhanaozen – to nationalize, under the control of labor collectives, the entire extractive and large-scale industry of the country

Call the Embassy of Kazakhstan and demand an end to the repression: Yerzhan Ashikbayev at (202) 232-5488 ext. 122

Email the U.S. State Department at usakz@state.gov and demand the withdrawal of all U.S. military and all U.S. corporations from Kazakhstan.

Workers Voice Socialist Movement stands with the workers and youth of Kazakhstan who have taken to the streets in the hundreds of thousands to protest high prices, low wages, union busting, and government repression all of which stem from the capitalist takeover of the socialist Kazakh government 30 years ago.

The struggles being waged in the streets and oilfields of Kazakhstan are a genuine expression of protest against the theft and exploitation of the country’s resources and labor by foreign capitalist corporations like ArcelorMittal, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and others. This is one of the main reasons US/NATO imperialist powers are desperately deploying their NGOs, reporters, and paid agents to redirect the protests and co-opt them for their own ends.

Some progressives are mistakenly rushing to support the Kazakh government and the deployment of Russian troops to repress the protests, claiming that the uprising is nothing more than a color revolution orchestrated by the imperialist US government. But comparisons with the attempted coup in Belarus or the successful US coup in Ukraine fall short. For one, the now-deposed government of Nazarbayev and his hand-picked successor Tokayev have long been in pockets of U.S. and EU capitalists. These same progressives ought to support the Kazakh workers’ demands to take back ownership of their national resources from US companies ExxonMobil and Chevron. The cries for “stability” among those promoting CSTO intervention care nothing for the stability for the workers of Kazakhstan. Russian and CSTO “peacekeepers” are meant to keep peace for the corporate owners of Kazakhstan’s mines and oilfields,  not protect the workers of Kazakhstan, Russia, or any of the other peoples once joined in socialist solidarity as part of the USSR.

The Russian Federation is a capitalist country under attack by US imperialists who seek to reduce Russia to a neo-colony like Ukraine, Poland, etc. For our own sake and the sake of workers in Russia, socialists, progressives, and workers organizations in the US are right to resist any such attempt. But we cannot ignore the internal struggle of workers against capitalists in Russia which is also growing as living standards continue to plummet from the heights once attained in the Soviet Union. This is a major part of the reason that the Russian government is sending troops to put down the workers’ uprising in Kazakhstan. For their part, two of the main Russian communist parties have condemned the deployment of Russian and other CSTO troops and have called for working class solidarity among the nations once united under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

There is no doubt that the U.S. is feverishly trying to install a capitalist government that serves the interests of Chevron, ExxonMobil, ArcelorMittal, Glencore, etc. all of whom control a large share of the national wealth of Kazakhstan. The US will try different means of gaining the advantage. They will try to undermine the workers’ movement by dividing the multinational working class of Kazakhstan into hostile camps, each aligned with their own bourgeoisie. US imperialists especially want to seize the chance to pit Kazakhs against Russians in order to win from the Russian capitalists a larger share of Kazakhstan’s mineral resources for themselves. The US also wants to expand their military presence in the region in order to threaten and eventually dominate Russia and China. If they can bribe some grouping of the Kazakh ruling class to advance this aim, they will.

No progressive—much less socialist—would dare tell workers and oppressed people not to rebel against miserable conditions. What needs to be soberly and factually assessed is how strong the workers are against the capitalists and the chances for success of any action taken against them. The paid agents of the capitalists are always going to try to exploit and twist workers’ grievances for their own purposes. What is the extent of the capitalists’ influence or infiltration? How much bribing or sabotage are the capitalists willing to undertake? Any attempt to advance the class struggle requires tactics and organization. But just as importantly, it  requires the will to step into the fray.

There is a fierce battle underway for the leadership of the protests in Kazakhstan. Socialists, communists, and trade unionists are on the ground organizing assemblies to consolidate their forces. Day and night they are working to advance the progressive demands of the broadest section of workers possible. They are bravely taking to the streets despite dozens of deaths at the hands of government forces. Despite the provocateurs who infiltrate their ranks, despite all the paid agents of the capitalists trying to sabotage their struggle, they are pressing on without any guarantee of victory. We in the Workers Voice Socialist Movement salute them in their struggle and ask you to show your solidarity.

For more info, please see the full statement from the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan below.

Hands off the workers!

U.S. out of Kazakhstan!

From Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan:

In Kazakhstan, there is now a real popular uprising and from the very beginning the protests were of a social and class nature, since the doubling of the price of liquefied gas on the exchange was just the last straw in an overflowing cup of patience. After all, the demonstrations began precisely in Zhanaozen at the initiative of the oil workers, which became a kind of political headquarters of the entire protest movement.

And the dynamics of this movement is indicative, since it began as a social protest, it then began to expand, and labor collectives used rallies to put forward their own demands for a 100% increase in wages, cancellation of optimization results, improvement of working conditions and freedom of trade union activity. As a result, on January 3, the entire Mangistau region was engulfed in a general strike, which spread to the neighboring Atyrau region.

It is noteworthy that already on January 4, Tengizchevroil oil workers went on strike, where the participation of American companies reaches 75 percent. It was there that in December last year 40,000 workers were laid off and a new series of layoffs was planned. They were subsequently supported during the day by the oilmen of Aktobe and West Kazakhstan and Kyzylorda regions.

Moreover, in the evening of the same day, strikes of miners from the ArcelorMittal Temirtau company began in the Karaganda region and copper smelters and miners from the Kazakhmys corporation, which can already be regarded as a general strike in the entire mining industry of the country. And here they also put forward demands for higher wages, lowering the retirement age, the right to their own trade unions and strikes.

At the same time, indefinite rallies on Tuesday began already in Atyrau, Uralsk, Aktyubinsk, Kyzyl-Orda, Taraz, Taldykorgan, Turkestan, Shymkent, Ekibastuz, in the cities of the Almaty region and in Almaty itself, where the overlap of streets appeared on the night of January 4-5. in an open clash of demonstrators with the police, as a result of which the city akimat was temporarily seized. This gave rise to Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev to declare a state of emergency.

It should be noted that these mobilizations in Almaty were attended mainly by unemployed youth and internal migrants living in the suburbs of the metropolis and working in temporary or low-paid jobs. And attempts to calm them down with promises by reducing the gas price to 50 tenge, separately for the Mangistau region and Almaty, have not satisfied anyone.

The decision of Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev to dismiss the government, and then removing Nursultan Nazarbayev from the post of chairman of the Security Council, also did not stop the protests, since on January 5, mass protest rallies began in those regional centers of Northern and Eastern Kazakhstan, where they had not previously existed – in Petropavlovsk, Pavlodar, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Semipalatinsk. At the same time, attempts were made to storm the buildings of regional akimats (municipal or provincial governments) in Aktobe, Taldykorgan, Shymkent and Almaty.

In Zhanaozen itself, at their indefinite rally, workers formulated new demands – the resignation of the incumbent president and all Nazarbayev officials, the restoration of the 1993 Constitution and the associated freedoms to create parties, trade unions, release political prisoners and end repression. A Council of aksakals was immediately created, which became an informal authority.

Thus, the demands and slogans that are now used in different cities and regions were broadcast to the entire movement, and the struggle received a political content. Attempts are also being made on the ground to create committees and councils to coordinate the struggle.

At the same time, troops were pulled together in Almaty, Aktau and Zhanaozen, and if everything went peacefully in the Mangistau region and the soldiers refused to disperse the protesters, then shootings began in the southern capital, and on the night of January 5-6, special forces were introduced, which began cleanup of the airport and neighborhoods captured by the rebels. According to various sources, there are already dozens of demonstrators killed.

In this situation, there is a danger of violent suppression of all protests and strikes, and here it is necessary to completely paralyze the country with a general strike. Therefore, it is urgent to form a unified action committees on a territorial and production basis in order to provide organized resistance to military and police terror.

In this regard, the support of the entire international workers’ and communist movement, leftist associations is also necessary in order to organize a large-scale campaign in the world.

ALERT!

100,000 U.S.-armed Ukraine Nazi regime troopers amassed on border of Donbass Region to massacre the antifascist resistance and line up at the Russian border

Blame will be put on Russia escalating chance of larger war

U.S. workers will pay the price as war profiteers further loot the budget

Say No to Another U.S. War for Energy Profits

The U.S. is setting the stage for its Nazi puppets in the Ukraine to commit a massacre as they push their troops closer and closer to Russia. Yet again, the American people are being told the lie that Russia is the aggressor.

100,000 U.S. armed and funded Ukrainian troops are amassed on the border of the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine. The fascist Ukrainian government is threatening to massacre the residents of the self-determined People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk which, along with the Republic of Crimea, declared independence from Ukraine in 2014 after a violent coup installed a U.S. puppet government in the capital of Kiev. Biden was a key player in the 2014 attack on Ukrainian sovereignty which he now falsely claims to be defending.

The heroic people of the independent republics of the Donbass are resistance fighters facing down a military with outright Nazis like the Azov battalion in its ranks. They don’t want to live in a fascist Ukraine, which since the 2014 coup has become the poorest country in Europe with its second largest military. They have faced waves of deadly attacks by fascists connected to the Ukrainian military and are shelled almost daily.

Russia shares several hundred miles of border with the Donbass region. Any military advance on its border—much less one by an army flying Nazi swastikas—is a serious matter of national defense. Anticipating some response by the Russian armed forces, the U.S. and its war propagandists in the capitalist media are hyping made-up intelligence ‘leaks’ of an imminent Russian invasion. The same news outlets fail to report that the U.S. has been flying nuclear-capable bombers on the edge of Russian airspace.

Already costing 14,000 lives, the U.S. backed Ukrainian war to regain the Donbass is not about defending Ukraine from “Russian aggression.” It’s about recapturing the industries of the region and crushing any resistance to the fascist dictates of Kiev which have driven the country into the dust. For the U.S., it’s also about maintaining a neocolonial government willing to sell out its country to U.S. and E.U. banks and corporations as has been done in Poland and Hungary.

The U.S. wants to use the Ukrainian military as the tip of its spear aimed eastward at neighboring Russia. Seeking out fresh sources of profit, the capitalists in control of the U.S. and the other major NATO powers want to bring Russia under their heel as they’ve done with other eastern Europe countries like the former Yugoslavia on whom they dropped 80,000 tons of bombs in 1999. We in the U.S. have nothing to gain by supporting these murderous wars for profit.

End all U.S. funding of the fascist Ukrainian government.

Stop the U.S./NATO drive to war with Russia!

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Fascist U.S. War Profiteers Are the Real Danger, Not Russia

Fascism Can’t Be Defeated Here While U.S. Funds, Trains, and Supplies Weapons to Fascist Governments Around the World

Hungry for Russia’s Oil and Gas, Washington Lying its Way to War Again

U.S. war hawks and their mouthpieces in the capitalist media claim that Russia is on the verge of invading Ukraine. This is yet another lie brought to you by the same people who falsely claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or that Syria “gassed its own people” and so on. The U.S. would lie its way into WWIII before admitting that its wars are fought one reason alone: to make rich men richer. Russia’s vast mineral, oil, and gas wealth is what the U.S. is really after.  

Is Russia a threat to U.S. workers? No! Last year, Russia’s military budget was under $62 billion. The official budget of the U.S. military budget is projected to be $753 billion—12 times the size of Russia’s. NATO’s joint annual military spending tops $1 trillion and is on the rise. The real threat to workers is that every social benefit we’ve fought for will be sacrificed to feed the war profiteers at the trough of the ever-ballooning war budget.

Here’s the truth: the U.S. has been on a steady march to push troops closer to Russia, despite assurances that U.S./NATO forces would not move “one inch eastward” in the words of U.S. Secretary of State James Baker in 1990. To raid resources, expand markets, and exploit more workers, the U.S. and the E.U. want Russia under their boot just like they’ve got Ukraine, Poland, and other countries of Eastern Europe. This would not only be a disaster for Russian workers; it would also increase the capitalists’ power to crush the living standards of workers everywhere.

The capitalists “served and protected” by the U.S. military want complete and exclusive access to the land, resources, and labor of the world. That’s why they’re so desperate to replace the independent governments of Russia, Belarus, Iran, etc. as well as those struggling to build socialism such as China, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. all of which they demonize and all of which have been subjected to harsh U.S. economic sanctions, terrorist attacks, and other forms of war.  

U.S. Installs Fascists to Enforce Corporate Pillage of Ukraine

While the big business media incessantly beat the drum for war with Russia, they bury the fact that in 2021 alone, the U.S. government pledged $400 million in tax-payer dollars to build up the military power of the fascist government of Ukraine which the Obama/Biden administration installed after a violent coup in 2014. The coup accomplished two main goals for the U.S.: Ukraine was forced to submit to the control of U.S. and E.U. banks, and it became a major buyer of U.S. weapons, which are now aimed at neighboring Russia.The U.S.-backed government in Kiev relies on fascist terror to crush resistance to their policies of gutting social programs, destroying pensions, and privatization, which have resulted in mass unemployment and hunger throughout Ukraine.

Since 2014 the country has seen an explosion of terrorism against trade unionists, Roma, Jewish, and LGBT people. Fascist gangs like the C14 patrol the streets of Kiev with the official sanction of the government. Living standards have declined to the point that 22.9% of Ukrainian children suffer from hunger according to the UN.

Anti-Fascist Fighters and Their Families in Donbass Shelled by U.S. Bombs

The people of Ukraine have resisted the attempted fascist takeover of their country. In the eastern part of Ukraine, in the Donbass region, anti-fascist fighters have waged a bitter war to defend the territories known as the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) and Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). Since 2014 the Ukrainian war on the Donbas has killed nearly 14,000 people including thousands of civilians.

In 2015, leaders from Ukraine, LPR, DPR, and Russia met in Minsk, Belarus to work out a diplomatic cessation of the war in the Donbass. They agreed to self-government and territorial independence for the Donbass. But in practice, the U.S.-backed Ukrainian government has done next to nothing to respect this agreement. Rarely does a day go by without some fascist Ukrainian paramilitary unit committing an act of terrorism against the people of the LPR and DPR. Ukrainian forces recently captured and tortured a Russian ceasefire monitor in Lugansk and carried out an armed attack on a settlement of civilians in the demilitarized zone of the DNR.

In April, Ukraine’s President Zelensky dropped all pretense at diplomacy when he declared that “NATO is the only way to end the war in Donbas.” Russia has made it clear that they would respond forcefully to any major escalation in the war as a matter of defense. It must be remembered that nearly 27,000,000 Soviet citizens were killed in the war against the German Nazis. People of all nationalities in Russia do not want armed Ukrainian fascists menacing their country. They will respond to the threat by force if necessary.

Biden’s Support of Ukrainian Fascism Comes Home to Roost

The fascist hell that Ukrainians are living through is what the U.S. wants for Russia. But this future may come first for the United States if we workers don’t get to the root of the worldwide fascist movement. Above all else, the ultra-rich want governments that answer to the profit motives of banks and corporations. If for that purpose they feel they need to rally their shock troops under the swastika and rule by open terror, that’s what they’ll do. U.S. backed Poland and Hungary have already taken this path.

U.S.-based fascist militias have been traveling to Ukraine to train with groups like the fascist Azov battalion, which is a unit of the National Guard of Ukraine funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars. Andriy Biletsky, commander of the Azov battalion and former member of the Ukrainian parliament, in his own words states: “The historic mission of our nation in this critical moment is to lead the white races of the world in a final crusade for their survival against subhumans.” These is the ideology of the “white power” movement that Rittenhouse, the Proud Boys, and others are a part of.

Fascists are puppets of the super-rich that use racism to divide and terrorize the people so the rich can hold on to their stolen wealth. This describes Kyle Rittenhouse to a T. His trial and acquittal were a major advance for the capitalists behind the U.S. fascist movement who seek legal protection and popular support for their terrorist troops.

It’s imperative that U.S. workers of all nationalities show up en masse to oppose racism and fascism. The fascists can only be defeated in the streets through mass action, not through the capitalist, white supremacist U.S. courts and not by relying on the Democratic Party which funds fascists in Israel, Ukraine, and beyond. The fight must also show solidarity with our brothers in sisters in Ukraine and Russia. We must demand that the U.S. withdraw all support to the fascist government of Ukraine. We can’t expect to win the fight against fascism here while it’s fueled by U.S. taxpayer dollars abroad.

No to War with Russia, Workers Unite to Fight the Fascists Here and in Ukraine

The Biden administration is asking U.S. workers to side with the fascist government of Ukraine in a war to colonize Russia. We’ll have none of it. From Kenosha to Charlottesville to Brunswick, Georgia, we’ve lost too many of our own to racist and fascist violence here. It’s time we come together and show the world that we will not be ruled by fear. Honor the martyrs of Ferguson, Kenosha, Donetsk, and Lugansk and the thousands more fighting fascism around the world.

Unite to Defeat Fascism and Racism from the U.S. to Ukraine!

No More Blood for Wall Street Profits!

Down with Fascism and White Supremacy, Up with Workers Power!  

Workers Voice welcomes feedback from our readers. Email us to share your thoughts.

Over 700 Protesters Killed in Year-Long United Struggle

On November 19, after a year-long struggle, more than 500 farmers’ unions from across India together forced the far-right BJP government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw three anti-farmer, anti-people, pro-corporate farm laws. The farmers’ movement represents more than 900 million Indian farmers and agricultural workers across diverse ethnic and religious groups and is supported by trade unions, workers, students, youth, and women’s organizations. This hard-won victory shows the power of working and oppressed people united in struggle and is a win for people’s movements around the world.The 2020 farm laws were designed by the Modi government to enhance corporate control over agriculture and further enslave farmers and agricultural workers—who are make up a majority of the Indian workforce—to corporations.

On November 26, 2020, after months of trying to persuade the government to withdraw the farm laws, Indian farmers began what would become the largest people’s movement in the world’s history. Millions joined railway and transit blockades, boycotts, a tractor rally, country-wide shutdowns, and sit-ins, including months-long encampments on the boarders of the Indian capital city, Delhi. For a year, the farmers remained united and drew support from across India despite brutal attacks by the government, demonization in the media, and extreme hardship during which more than 700 people were killed due to government repression.

Despite their historic win, the farmers vow to continue their fight until the laws are officially withdrawn during the upcoming parliamentary session and other demands are met. The other demands include the passing of a minimum price law, the withdrawal of legal cases filed against the farmers’ protest, and the arrest of those who are responsible for the massacre of farmers. This movement has maintained its purpose and solidarity even in the face of brutal repression and sacrifice, showing what will be required of us all if we are to win our own liberation by finally overturning the capitalist system.

Independent Mass Action Needed

Stop Support for Biden’s War-making and Racism

Asylum for Haitians and all Migrants

Stop Deportations

End Racist Terror and Brutality of ICE and U.S. Border Patrol

Close the Camps, Release Imprisoned Migrants

Repeating the same state violence used against enslaved Africans, U.S. Border Patrol agents near Del Rio, TX have been terrorizing Haitians and other migrants from horseback, using whips to drive desperate families from the border. The Biden administration is also using a so-called “emergency” rule invoked by Trump at the start of the pandemic to enforce mass deportations of asylum seekers.

The agents responsible for these heinous acts must be arrested and jailed for their crimes, and the Border Patrol abolished. Migrants should be met at the border with the support they need, including healthcare, shelter, food, and asylum, not whips in the hands of sadistic, murderous scum.

Biden has done nothing to stop the unending deportations, close the detention centers (concentration camps), or help the thousands of immigrants who have been driven out of their home countries by the U.S. and other imperialist countries. Haiti has faced massive political repression in the wake of the assassination of President Moise (by U.S.-backed agents), as well as devastation and death brought by hurricanes, earthquakes, and COVID.

Border Patrol officials repeat the same sentiments expressed by Kamala Harris and Biden, warning immigrants that if they come to the U.S. they will be deported or detained. Though Biden’s press secretary Psaki feigned outrage when asked about this latest incident of racist violence, these acts stem directly from the official policies of the Biden administration.

Border Patrol, like ICE, is part of the Department of Homeland Security, created after 9/11 to enforce the increasingly repressive laws and policies of every administration since. This agency is a tool of the rich who use terrorism to keep workers–immigrants and not–desperate and willing to work for pennies.

As workers we must stand in solidarity with immigrants from around the world who have been victimized by the policies of U.S. corporations, war profiteers, and governments acting in the interest of the rich. Companies continue to set up shop abroad where they pay slave wages, which are kept low by brutal governments that the U.S. installs and supports.

Why aren’t laws passed to prevent off-shore bank profiteering or to prevent companies from setting up production in countries that pay lower wages or outlaw union organizing? Because the goal of the U.S. government, both Democrats and Republicans, is to lower the living standards of workers globally. The more workers of any country suffer, the more our living standards fall as capitalists aim to pit us workers against each other in a competition to sell our labor. Solidarity is our way to fight back.