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Workers at Google Force Company to Cancel Pentagon Contract

More than 4,600 workers at Google demanded the termination of a company contract with the Pentagon, declaring in a petition that “We believe Google should not be in the business of war.” In March, many workers learned for the first time of Google’s involvement in a Pentagon program known as Project Maven, which sought to harness artificial intelligence technology to automate the operation of military drones. As part of the unending war waged on so many African and Middle Eastern nations, the US military has used its fleet of remotely piloted aircraft, or drones, to kill thousands of men, women, and children. Workers for Google acted on their outrage by resigning in protest and by threatening public protest; on June 1, caving to the mounting pressure of its workers, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, announced that it would not renew its “Project Maven” contract with the Pentagon.

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NOLA Hotel Workers Win Contract

On May 29, Hilton-Riverside workers voted to approve their first contract. The workers organized with UNITE HERE! Local 23 (NOLA, MS, TN), and have gained job security, seniority rights, and some of the highest wage increases the union has won anywhere along the Gulf. Local 23 was founded in 2009 and now has approximately 20,000 members, including workers in fast food, airport concessions, hotel and parking, among other areas of the economy.

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Teamsters Stand Up for Immigrants, Become “Sanctuary Union”

Ebere Garcia Vasquez

In Sept. 2017, the New York Teamsters passed a resolution to become a “sanctuary union,” following the Sept. 6 deportation of long-time Teamster member, Eber Garcia Vasquez. The union pledges to not cooperate with federal immigration agents seeking to deport its members, and to take proactive steps such as providing training and legal assistance. George Miranda, president of Teamsters Joint Council 16, stated: “Being a sanctuary union means we will do all that is in our power to keep our immigrant members safe and keep their families together. The Teamsters have fought against racism since our first days as a union, and this is the next step.”

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Boeing Technicians Unionize in South Carolina

Despite historically unfavorable conditions, the union movement continues to pick up steam in the southeast. In South Carolina, Boeing Co. technicians have scored a victory, forming the first collective bargaining unit at the South Carolina plane factory. The newly-unionized Workers face challenges, as they are still considered a “micro unit” (comprising only 180 flight-line workers). Boeing bosses have asked the labor panel to review the unionization process, accusing the workers of engaging in “artificial gerrymandering” for including employees at the North Charleston campus. Nevertheless, unionization at the South Carolina plant represents a major breakthrough for the labor movement in a so-called “right to work” state. Similar breakthroughs in organizing aerospace workers could occur in other southeast states, for example, at the Airbus SE factory in Mobile, Alabama.

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Pride Is More Than a Fight for Love, It Is a Fight for Liberation

By Sally Jane Black

There is a rich history of LGBTQ resistance in New Orleans. The Gay Liberation Front first held a “gay in” in City Park in 1971. The funeral-goers at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church refused to sneak away from the press after the Upstairs Lounge arson attack, inspiring people worldwide with their defiance. LGBTQ groups here have fought for decades, from the AIDS epidemic up through recent episodes of violence.

However, the spotlight has fallen on an organization—New Orleans Pride—that has strayed from its militant roots. At N.O. Pride, a select few pay to march and celebrate their own exploitation. They pander to corporate interests, the U.S. and city governments, and business owners. It is a tourist attraction.

Meanwhile, discrimination prevents queer and trans people from getting jobs, finding housing or receiving medical care. LGBTQ youth (especially black, brown, and indigenous people) are bullied in school and harassed by police. Trans people, especially black trans women, are murdered at a rate far higher than non-trans women. Queer people still face homophobic violence. The suicide rate for trans people is more than double the national average. Trans and queer prisoners (including immigrants) face abuse in for-profit prisons. Worldwide, LGBTQ people are violently oppressed by U.S. imperialism.

THEY WANT TO CONTROL OUR BODIES
Oppression of LGBTQ people is part of the capitalist drive for disposable and cheap labor. Capitalism relies on a low-wage workforce, ensured by millions of people remaining unemployed. It relies on gender roles that draw free labor in the form of childcare, housekeeping, emotional support, etc. Capitalists profit by defining “family” strictly as non-transgender man and woman plus children. Hence, they attack reproductive rights, marriage rights and benefits, and attempt to make transgender healthcare inaccessible.

DIVIDING THE WORKING CLASS–WE MUST BE UNITED
LGBTQ oppression benefits capitalists by dividing the working class. By couching these attacks in terms of “religious freedom” or “family values,” they pit working class people against each other. They divide LGBT people by turning events like Pride into corporate events promoting the police, military, and other oppressive institutions. Pride becomes another celebration of homophobia and transphobia, by excluding most LGBTQ people who do not feel safe surrounded by police, do not feel represented by corporate logos and do not want to be tourist attractions.

In the U.S., homosexuality was legalized in 2003. Without those laws, police evolved their tactics. E.g., under NOPD Chief Warren Riley, LGBTQ people (especially black trans women) were profiled as sex workers, no matter what they were doing. Despite being “legal”, we still do not have full protection of the law. The same-sex marriage victory in 2015 brought millions of LGBTQ Americans access to spousal benefits. The current administration is rolling back that victory by allowing employers to deny benefits to same-sex couples. They continue to keep medical care and jobs out of reach for us through insurance policies and right-to-work laws. The end result is the same: a limited definition of family is reinforced and unemployment remains high. Their profits are safe.

Full LGBTQ liberation will not be possible under capitalism. Until the white supremacist, anti-queer, anti-trans billionaires who fund every initiative to roll back our rights, who literally write the laws that exclude (and kill) us, who wish to see a divided working class, remain in control, every victory will be temporary. The only way forward is to unite against them, to stand in solidarity with all working class and oppressed people, and to fight against every attack on LGBTQ people all over the world. Our liberation depends on the liberation of all.

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Cops Out Of Pride! A Rebirth of Radical LGBTQ Resistance in NOLA

Working class New Orleanians marched ahead of the corporate pride parade to protest attacks on the LGBT community such as the recent Supreme Court decision allowing businesses to discriminate against LGBT people. Inspired by the struggles of the 60s and the rebellion at Stonewall, the protest retained a strong ant–cop sentiment. The chants and speeches criticized the parade’s continued rejection of the queer and trans youth of color who started the movement, in favor of the police, US military and corporations that oppress us.

Contact: queerworkersnola@gmail.com and join the fight.

A banner was dropped at Bourbon and St. Anne during the 2018 New Orleans Pride Parade, reading: “Breaking Out of Our Chains. No Pride in Erasing, Harassing, Surveilling Queer/Trans POC Youth

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Transgender Prisoners Face Brutality

Recent changes to the Bureau of Prisons’ Transgender Offender Manual will lead to increased violence against trans prisoners. The changes will sort trans people not by the gender they are, but the gender they were assigned at birth. Trans women will be sent to men’s prisons, and trans men to women’s prisons, except “in rare cases.” Under the guise of “safety concerns,” they have endangered trans people’s lives, despite the fact that trans prisoners are nine times more likely to be sexually harassed or assaulted.

In many places across the United States, the previous rules, which recommended serious consideration of trans prisoners being placed with those of their own genders (i.e., trans women with other women), were often ignored; now trans prisoners do not even have the meager protections of these rules. Over a fifth of trans people have been in jail or prison, many of them targeted by profiling (such as in New Orleans, where black trans women are routinely profiled as sex workers by NOPD) or arrested for acts of selfdefense (as in the case of Cece McDonald, a trans woman charged with manslaughter for defending herself and her friends against attack).

The recent changes by the Justice Department will also bring an end to the tracking of LGBTQ victims of crimes. The collection of statistics on these crimes have been a useful tool in the past, helping to highlight homophobic and transphobic hate-crimes and showing the need for action against oppressive policies. These new rules will mean more and more trans people will face harassment, assault, rape, or even murder in prison.

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Student Letter: Serving Others

By Rachel Ramos, High School Contributor

When Rev. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach said, “Students, in the course of their formation, must let the gritty reality of this world into their lives, so they can learn to feel it, think about it critically, respond to its suffering and engage it constructively. They should learn to perceive, think, judge, choose and act for the rights of others, especially the disadvantaged and the oppressed,” he meant a lot more than the surface of this statement.

Within our society, people live in an era where social tension and fear is an aspect of everyday life. There may never be a moment where we can sit and ‘lay back’ We live in an era where mass shootings become less of a surprise every day. We live in an era where weapons that can kill people in a matter of seconds, are more accessible than ever before. Not only are they accessible, but they are pushed to be accessible by major corporations and politicians because they profit from the demand. In order to make the difference, we have to expose ourselves to this tainted society and embrace it with our knowledge so that we may find a way to understand, accept, and control it. With this in mind, we do this work not for ourselves, but for the ones who are unable.

We live in a society that determines wealth based on your race and privilege. There are people who want their voices to be heard, but they are not heard because of the shallow values those in power may possess. For the ones who are able to be heard and make a difference, they must do it for others as well as themselves. It is imperative that we think of those who need a voice. If we have the ability to make differences or make changes, it is our ethical duty to do for everyone. In order to solve problems, we have to meet the conflict face to face, comprehend it to make a judgement and then act accordingly.

Rev. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach also said, “when researching and teaching, where and with whom is my heart?” When we are trying to find others, why are we doing it? What is our purpose? We do these things with the thought in mind that someone else could possibly benefit from our intellectual gain. As I look forward to attending Loyola University New Orleans, my heart is in the future with the individuals. My career goal is to become an orthopedic specialist in sports medicine. There will be adversity throughout my journey, but it will be worth it in the end. The classes will be strenuous, and the courseload will be excessive. However, I am ready. I will possess the gift to give an athlete their second chance after an injury. I may not be able to fulfill my dreams as a professional athlete, but my life ambition is to be the one who makes that dream survive for others. I want to live my life in service to others.

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Lobbyists: Campaign Donations or Bribes?

Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s Budget Director, Admits He Spoke Only To Lobbyists Who Paid Him

Mulvaney, former congressman in South Carolina from 2011 to 2017 said “We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress,” to the American Bankers Association conference in Washington, according to The New York Times. “If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you’re a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.” Mulvaney collected $63,000 from loan sharking PayDay Lenders. Since being named acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last year (in addition to running the Office of Management and Budget), he has eased regulations on payday lenders. Meanwhile a candidate for the West Virginia House of Delegates was dragged out of a hearing after listing the donations received by state lawmakers from fossil fuel companies. She was testifying on a bill on oil and gas drilling rules.

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May Day NOLA 2018

On May 1, International Workers Day, over 250 protestors from various working class organizations marched on City Hall to call for the end of police harassments, racial profiling, and ICE raids. The people representing these organizations are immigrants and workers demanding that the city of New Orleans improve their working conditions in the hospitality industry, and better pay. They also demanded that the city pass the Workweek Ordinance, written by the Hospitality Workers Committee. The spirit of May Day is used to build unity among working class and oppressed communities in New Orleans.