Immigration coalition unites communities against ICE raids

Testimony at a hearing on Dec. 8 by the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services documented how the foreclosure crisis is getting worse. Laurie Goodman, senior managing director at Amherst Securities, a leading broker/dealer specializing in trading mortgage-backed securities, testified that in the third quarter of 2009, 14.1 percent of borrowers — or 7.9 million homeowners — did not make their mortgage payments. She estimated that 7 million of these 7.9 million homeowners will lose their homes.... Posted Dec 23, 2009

Chants of “Jobs, not war!” echoed off the buildings at Broad and Market streets in downtown Newark, N.J., on Dec. 19. Activists withstood freezing cold to demand a massive public works program with direct government employment at prevailing wages.... Posted Dec 23, 2009

On Dec. 19, despite snow, more than 40 protesters gathered at the home of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson picketing, chanting and singing “We Shall Not Be Moved!” The rally was called by the Imperial Women, a diverse group of women formed to press for a militant response in the wake of the October discovery of 11 bodies of Black women in Anthony Sowell’s home on Imperial Avenue on Cleveland’s east side.... Posted Dec 23, 2009

On Dec. 15, federal prosecutors charged a police chief and two officers with orchestrating a cover-up in the racially motivated fatal beating of 25-year-old Luis Ramírez, a Mexican immigrant, by white teenagers in Shenandoah, Pa.... Posted Dec 23, 2009

Houstonians took to the streets for several days in mid-December in strong actions to support immigrant rights and immigration reform.... Posted Dec 23, 2009

On March 4, students and workers from all around the country will take action to defend education against increased privatization of K-12 schools and budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs and tuition increases at the college and university level—especially the public institutions.... Posted Dec 23, 2009

Chanting “MTA, we won’t pay!” hundreds of youth protested on Dec. 21 at the Metropolitan Transit Authority headquarters in New York City. Signs at this Day of Outrage protest read, “Save the Students, not the Bankers.”... Posted Dec 23, 2009

A Dec. 16 Detroit News article confirms what most working people in Detroit have been saying for some time: The official employment figures issued by the federal government do not give an accurate description of the depth of the economic crisis in the city. According to the article, the actual unemployment rate in Detroit is closer to 50 percent, rather than the nearly 28 percent reported over the last several months.... Posted Dec 23, 2009

The past decade has seen a flurry of promising breakthroughs in medicine. The HPV vaccine, targeted cancer therapy, human genome mapping, natural orifice surgery, and drug-eluting stents are among the biggest breakthroughs of the 21st century. Many of these developments hold the potential to prolong and improve life.... Posted Dec 23, 2009

The day after he went to Wall Street to say that bankers’ salaries are “rather low,” Gov. David Paterson signed a bill Dec. 10 taking $30 to $50 billion away from the pensions of new state and municipal hires. This is the biggest change to New York’s pension system in 25 years.... Posted Dec 23, 2009

“They say gentrify, we say unify!” shouted protesters on Dec. 16 in East Harlem, New York City.... Posted Dec 23, 2009

New York’s billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg and his friends at The Related Companies L.P. were upset Dec. 21 by a 49-1 override of Bloomberg’s veto of an earlier vote by the New York City Council, which had rejected Related Companies’ attempt to create a monster-mall out of the 560,000-square-foot Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx, N.Y.... Posted Dec 23, 2009





Across New York state and Pennsylvania dozens of environmental activist groups are working to ban or limit the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” Green Guerrillas’ Youth Media Tech Collective consists of youth of color ages 15 through 19, who plan to create an online movie to expose the issues of natural gas exploitation. Workers World spoke with members of the collective about their activities.... Posted Dec 20, 2009

Several dozen unemployed youth rallied here on Dec. 4 at the Employment Security Commission headquarters, demanding “A jobs program at a living wage, not war and prisons!”... Posted Dec 20, 2009

Demanding relief from the jobs crisis and record foreclosures, activists in Los Angeles led a militant trail of protest on Dec. 12 from a state park to the streets to inside Bank of America. ... Posted Dec 20, 2009

The Cleveland Bail Out the People Movement chapter held its first March for Jobs on Dec. 12.... Posted Dec 20, 2009

The myth of upward mobility through education is the basis of the so-called “American Dream.” But college education has become a financial Mount Everest that the majority of the working class cannot climb.... Posted Dec 20, 2009

Text of a talk given Dec. 11 to a meeting of the New York branch of Workers World Party by Naomi Cohen.... Posted Dec 20, 2009

The United States is one of a small number of countries that allow the sale of human blood plasma for profits. Across the country, countless workers are selling the yellowy substance found in their blood to the pharmaceutical giants of Wall Street.... Posted Dec 19, 2009

Excerpts from a talk by Martha Grevatt of Cleveland at the WWP National Conference, Nov. 14.... Posted Dec 19, 2009

Support arrived quickly for long-time Baltimore community activists Sharon Black-Ceci and Steven Ceci, who were arrested and dragged from their home by cops on Dec. 9. As of Dec. 14 more than 1,000 people had sent in messages or signed a petition demanding their release from all charges, an inquiry into police surveillance of Baltimore progressives and that police stop all attacks on movement activists.... Posted Dec 17, 2009

On Dec. 9, supporters of political journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal marked the 28th year of his incarceration on Pennsylvania’s death row, more determined than ever to fight for his exoneration.... Posted Dec 17, 2009

Workers World Party and Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) held a public forum Dec. 11 at the Solidarity Center in a tribute to martyred Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton.... Posted Dec 17, 2009

At a national assembly of U.S. Labor Against the War held in Chicago Dec. 4-6, a resolution was passed unanimously that called for “an immediate end to the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan and military attacks in Pakistan.” The resolution also declared that “USLAW calls for the immediate and complete withdrawal of all U.S. military forces and contractors from Iraq and Afghanistan and the closing of all U.S. military bases in both countries.”... Posted Dec 17, 2009



Over 100 University of Massachusetts students and community supporters came out on Dec. 1 to protest the appearance near the UMass campus of the white supremacist, anti-gay, anti-Semitic Fred Phelps and members of his Westboro Church in Kansas.... Posted Dec 13, 2009

On the evening of Nov. 30, scores of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer activists packed Cleveland City Council chambers in anticipation of a tremendous victory for the transgender community. That night the Council revised the city charter to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression.... Posted Dec 13, 2009

An overflow crowd heard Larry Holmes, keynote speaker at Springfield, Mass., Technical Community College’s 5th annual Rosa Parks Day observance on Dec. 1.... Posted Dec 13, 2009

Protesters converged on the White House on Dec. 3—the day President Barack Obama was holding his “jobs summit”—to demand a comprehensive jobs program, not more war.... Posted Dec 13, 2009

Fighting to reverse 40 years of progressive change in the Wake County School Board, North Carolina Republican Party candidate John Tedesco was successfully elected to a District 2 School Board position in the Nov. 3 elections. Tedesco, a staunch segregationist and champion of “neighborhood schools,” and three other school board members joined incumbent Ron Margiotta to secure a pro-segregationist majority on the nine-member board.... Posted Dec 13, 2009

Excerpts from a talk given by Ellen Catalinotto at the WWP National Conference, Nov. 14.... Posted Dec 13, 2009

People gathered at the Southern Workers School in Raleigh, N.C., Dec. 5 to exchange experiences in organizing and to fight for collective bargaining and social and economic justice. The one-day conference included workers from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee.... Posted Dec 11, 2009

Dec. 4 marked the 40th anniversary of the targeted assassinations of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, two leading members of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party. These young revolutionary activists were killed in a Panther residence on Chicago’s West Side in a neighborhood where the organization ran free breakfast programs and was in the process of establishing a free medical clinic.... Posted Dec 11, 2009

Visiting a prisoner is not easy, for either a family member or a political activist. Often the only way is to take a special bus round trip to one of the many prisons located, like Auburn, in a rural setting. A prison bus from New York City to Auburn takes six hours each way and leaves in the middle of the night from Lexington Avenue and 125th Street for a 9 a.m. visit. After corresponding with Jalil Muntaqim for more than four years, it was exciting to finally meet him this fall. Happily, he turned out to be exactly the same person as he is in his letters.... Posted Dec 11, 2009

Sam Marcy, the founding chairperson of Workers World Party and a farseeing contributor to the Marxist-Leninist tradition, foretold in his 1986 book “High Tech Low Pay” that women and people of color would soon gain ascendancy in the U.S. working class. Now a scholarly study, “The Changing Face of Labor, 1983-2008,” published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, verifies just that in the organized labor movement.... Posted Dec 11, 2009

Excerpts from a talk by Sandra Hines, an organizer with Michigan’s Moratorium NOW! Coalition, at the WWP National Conference, Nov. 14.... Posted Dec 11, 2009

Imagine finding methane and metals in your drinking water or having your water well explode or catch on fire. Imagine getting thrown out of bed one morning as your entire house is lifted off the ground from an explosion due to methane gas build-up. These nightmares are a reality for a growing number of families whose homes are located near natural gas drilling sites in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states across the U.S.... Posted Dec 10, 2009

On the morning of Dec. 9, long-time Baltimore Community activists Sharon Black-Ceci and Steven Ceci were dragged from their home by Baltimore police. The two, long-time leaders in the anti-racist, and poor people’s rights struggle, had been under police surveillance for their political activism.... Posted Dec 10, 2009

Anti-war activists across the United States took to the streets in response to President Barack Obama’s Dec. 1 announcement that an additional 30,000 U.S. troops will be sent to Afghanistan in a major escalation of the war on that central Asian country.<... Posted Dec 9, 2009

Twenty years ago, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her 15-year-old daughter were viciously murdered in El Salvador by military forces trained at the School of the Americas, located at Fort Benning in Columbus, Ga. They are just a few of the many tens of thousands of victims killed, tortured, beaten and “disappeared” in countries from Argentina to Chile to Colombia to Honduras, in military coups and massacres carried out by the graduates of this U.S. training school.... Posted Dec 6, 2009

Excerpts from a talk given by Fight Imperialism, Stand Together organizer LeiLani Dowell, at the WWP National Conference, Nov. 14.... Posted Dec 6, 2009

Hundreds of students rallied at Wayne State University in Detroit Nov. 23 to protest the elimination of the Michigan Promise Scholarship and other education cuts by the state legislature.... Posted Dec 5, 2009

On Nov. 19, thousands of students, workers and faculty on campuses across the University of California system protested and blockaded a meeting of the U.C. Regents, where the regents approved 32 percent tuition and fee increases, furloughs of campus workers and continued budget cuts. Several days of huge protests, seen throughout the media, ended with nearly 60 arrests and showed the potential of opposition to the “business as usual” attacks on jobs and education by the U.C. administrators.... Posted Dec 5, 2009

Undaunted by pouring rain, hundreds of community residents, students and United Steelworker union retirees in Pittsburgh blocked the street in front of the Braddock hospital on Nov. 19 to declare that the struggle to keep the facility open was only the beginning.... Posted Dec 5, 2009

Hotel workers rolling strikes | Native farmers charge USDA with loan discrimination | CLUW defends women’s reproductive freedom | S.F. Labor Council condemns Honduran election... Posted Dec 5, 2009

The shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 5, which left 13 people dead, have brought into bold relief the terrible strains on soldiers and their families as we enter the eighth year of the alleged “war on terror.”... Posted Dec 5, 2009

Talk given by John Catalinotto at the WWP National Conference, Nov. 14.... Posted Dec 5, 2009

“When billionaire developers are accepting tens of millions of dollars in tax benefits to build in our communities,” said Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr., “it is not a radical idea to ask that the jobs they create be good jobs.”... Posted Dec 5, 2009

Some 100 people gathered at the town square in Lumpkin, Ga., on Nov. 20 to protest the conditions at the nearby Stewart Detention Center, a privately owned prison that holds 1,800 immigrants awaiting deportation.... Posted Dec 3, 2009

Coalitions are forming in several Cleveland communities to address the murders of 11 Black women whose bodies were found in and around a house on Imperial Avenue in late October. Activists are holding rallies and vigils, meeting with public officials to present demands, developing better resources for women and the families of missing persons, and taking care of all the funeral arrangements for the 10 women whose remains have been identified.... Posted Dec 3, 2009

Despite seven civilian complaints investigated by Internal Affairs, including some from his neighbors, Sgt. Frank Tepper was never brought up on any charges by the Philadelphia Police Department, where he worked for 13 years. On Nov. 21 the department's inaction turned deadly when Tepper shot and killed a young neighbor, 21-year-old William Panas Jr.... Posted Dec 3, 2009

Dec. 9 marks the 28th anniversary of the imprisonment of political prisoner and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer. To observe this important anniversary and support ongoing efforts to free Mumia, the Philadelphia International Action Center will host a showing of the 2008 documentary, “In Prison My Whole Life.”... Posted Dec 3, 2009

Depression. The present crisis is the worst since the Great Depression. But it is not only the worst crisis since the Depression. It has the same fundamental elements as the Depression.... Posted Dec 3, 2009

Several hundred Native people and their supporters gathered in Plymouth, Mass., for the 40th annual National Day of Mourning, which is a protest of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and a day of mourning for Native ancestors who died as a result of the European invasion of the Americas.... Posted Dec 2, 2009

Statement from Leonard Peltier read by Bert Waters at the 40th National Day of Mourning, Nov. 26, in Plymouth, Mass.... Posted Dec 2, 2009

Two significant events have occurred in Detroit, a majority African-American city, that warrant the attention of people concerned about the plight and future of U.S. urban centers. Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s appointment of an emergency financial manager to oversee the affairs of the public school system represents a direct attack on the people of Detroit’s right to self-determination. The other was the re-election of Mayor Dave Bing, who ran on a theme of reducing the budget deficit through cutting jobs, salaries and city services.... Posted Dec 2, 2009

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was the keynote speaker in downtown Detroit on Nov. 19 at the first awards dinner for the Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust, an organization that consists of 50 groups representing the Arab, Muslim, African-American, Asian and civil-rights constituencies along with 50 officials from local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies.... Posted Nov 29, 2009

Picture the Homeless held a fundraising public meeting at Judson Memorial Church in New York City on Nov. 17, PTH’s 10th anniversary. Hundreds of supporters came out to support this dynamic grassroots organization.... Posted Nov 29, 2009

As if the “cash-for-kids” scandal that has two former Luzerne County judges under indictment on racketeering charges wasn’t enough, now reports of another pay-back scheme are surfacing—this one elsewhere in northeastern Pennsylvania’s coal region, where prospective teachers were forced to shell out up to $5,000 to secure a job.... Posted Nov 29, 2009

At a Nov. 18 news conference called by the disabled rights organization Warriors on Wheels, members of the group spoke out against the Detroit Department of Transportation using unsafe transportation providers for seniors and disabled residents.... Posted Nov 29, 2009

A famous U.S. patriot of the Revolutionary War against Britain, Thomas Paine, is quoted as saying, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” But for millions of oppressed people in the U.S. and globally, these times are also a continuation of the realities of their lives that have existed for eons. Today’s economic crisis and political situation are just another chapter in the history of their injuries.... Posted Nov 29, 2009

Two-day strike of grad teaching assistants wins in Ill. | Part-time faculty win historic first contract in Md. | Workers protest Bissell firing after voting union | Anti-sweatshop movement wins fight for Honduran workers... Posted Nov 29, 2009

In the early hours of the afternoon of Nov. 19, more than 2,000 students stood outside the office of the University of California’s Board of Regents. As it became clear that a motion to raise UC tuition by 32 percent had passed, the students screamed in outrage. Outside the meeting and all across the state, students began to fight back.... Posted Nov 25, 2009

On Nov. 19, longtime civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart was ordered by Judge John G. Koeltl to turn herself in to begin serving a prison sentence for her 2006 conviction for conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists. Amidst a backdrop of chants of “Free Lynne Stewart!” and “We love you Lynne!” and swarmed by supporters, friends and family members, Stewart issued a statement outside the U.S. District Court in New York before being taken into custody.... Posted Nov 25, 2009

Excerpts from a talk given by WWP Secretariat member Monica Moorehead at the WWP National Conference Nov. 14..... Posted Nov 24, 2009

Excerpts from a talk by Sharon Black at the WWP National Conference, Nov. 14.... Posted Nov 24, 2009

Excerpts from a talk by John Parker from Los Angeles to the WWP National Conference, Nov. 14.... Posted Nov 24, 2009

Excerpts from a talk by Phebe Eckfeldt from Boston at the WWP National Conference, Nov. 14.... Posted Nov 24, 2009

Excerpts are from a talk given by Fight Imperialism, Stand Together organizer, David Hoskins, at the WWP National Conference, Nov. 14.... Posted Nov 24, 2009

Federal agents moved on Nov. 12 to seize four mosques and an Islamic charity, the Alavi Foundation, using phony claims that they were channeling money to fund an Iranian nuclear weapons program.... Posted Nov 22, 2009

On Nov. 12, the Center for Constitutional Rights brought a lawsuit against the U.S. government on behalf of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. CCR charged Congress with violating the U.S. Constitution when it recently voted to strip ACORN, its affiliates and allies of funding.... Posted Nov 20, 2009

The televised scenes and photos from Fort Hood, Texas, following the Nov. 5 shooting at the “Soldier Readiness Center” that left 13 dead, brought back memories of another time when that enormous military base was a center of political struggle.... Posted Nov 20, 2009

Excerpts from a talk by Larry Holmes to the Workers World Party National Conference: Our biggest problem is that our class has been untaught how to fight. It is a legacy of class collaborationist trade union leaders that feel they have some partnership with the Democratic Party and now with the government, which is an illusion in their own mind.... Posted Nov 19, 2009

Excerpts from a talk by Teresa Gutierrez to the WWP National Conference, Nov. 14: To add to the long list of crimes against humanity perpetrated by imperialism, we can include today’s unprecedented wave of human migration. I speak not only of the millions of undocumented migrants forced to leave their countries in hazardous boats or sweltering windowless trucks, transport that too often becomes the coffins for too many.... Posted Nov 19, 2009

Excerpts from a talk by Fred Goldstein to the Workers World Party National Conference Nov. 14: We are a party of fighters, but we also must carefully analyze what is going on around us and what direction things are taking. Using Marxism is the surest guide.... Posted Nov 19, 2009

Excerpts from a talk by youth organization FIST leader Larry Hales to the WWP National Conference, Nov. 14: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for people between the ages of 16 and 24, unemployment is 18.5 percent, the highest it has been since after the Second World War. For Black youth it is 32 percent, 22 percent for Latino/a youth and the percentage for Indigenous youth is hard to come by, but according to an ABC News report, on some reservations the general unemployment rate is 80 percent.... Posted Nov 19, 2009

Excerpts from a talk by Elena Everett of Durham, N.C., to the WWP National Conference, Nov. 14: Thank you for the opportunity to help open this beautiful conference where we have come together to celebrate 50 years of organizing and struggling for justice.... Posted Nov 19, 2009

Excerpted from a talk by Sara Flounders at the Workers World Party National Conference in New York: The U.S. military budget is larger than the rest of the world’s put together. This is a superprofit subsidy to the wealthiest CEOs and stockholders of the military corporations.... Posted Nov 19, 2009

Over 25,000 letters calling on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct a civil rights investigation of the 28-year conspiracy to execute death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal were delivered to the doors of the Department of Justice in Washington at the end of a spirited march and rally on Nov. 12.... Posted Nov 18, 2009

After seven months of working without a contract, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) workers in Transport Workers Union Local 234 voted to go on strike one week before baseball’s World Series, when national attention was focused on Philadelphia.... Posted Nov 18, 2009

Two main themes ran through the 2009 Workers World Party National Conference: the revival of serious class struggle in the United States as the capitalist crisis brutally strips the workers and oppressed of their jobs, homes and health, and the need to strengthen international workers’ solidarity in the face of corporate globalization and increasing militarism and war.... Posted Nov 18, 2009

A highlight of the Workers World Party national conference on Nov. 14 was an address by Armando Robles, president of United Electrical Workers Local 1110. In December 2008, Robles led his members in the historic occupation of Republic Window and Doors in Chicago after the company tried to close shop without providing vacation or severance pay for workers.... Posted Nov 18, 2009

Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent at least $100 million of his $16 billion fortune to get re-elected on Nov. 3. That’s capitalist democracy for you. Under the Stars and Stripes, billionaires are guaranteed the same right to become mayors as, supposedly, homeless people.... Posted Nov 15, 2009

On Nov. 2 the United Auto Workers announced that its Ford hourly members had rejected contract concessions similar to those obtained by Chrysler and General Motors earlier this year. The final vote was nearly 3-to-1 against the givebacks; at several plants more than 90 percent voted “no.”... Posted Nov 13, 2009

The unemployment report produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the start of every month has a political goal: Present the economy in the best possible light.... Posted Nov 13, 2009

A demonstration was held outside the McNamara Federal Building in downtown Detroit on Nov. 5 in response to the recent murder by FBI agents of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah. Over 250 people gathered for a rally and speak-out demanding an independent investigation into the Islamic leader’s killing, and the release of 11 people being held in connection with the case. Abdullah, 53, was shot 18 times by FBI agents on Oct. 28 after he and several followers were lured to a warehouse in nearby Dearborn.... Posted Nov 12, 2009

In April the Fort Dix Five were given sentences of life plus 30 years for allegedly plotting to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey. These Muslim defendants were prosecuted and tried even when there was no crime, a practice known as pre-emptive prosecution. Lejla Duka, the 11-year-old daughter of Fort Dix Five defendant Dritan Duka, has been a courageous spokesperson on her father’s and uncles’ behalf. Lejla and her grandmother, Zurata Duka, spoke with Workers World about the arrests and what they have meant to their family.... Posted Nov 12, 2009

The Michigan Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shutoffs has recently scored important victories in the fight against home foreclosures and evictions. After a one-year battle, the coalition, along with neighborhood activists, stopped the eviction of Belva Davis and forced Ocwen Loan Servicing to modify her mortgage.... Posted Nov 12, 2009

The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, called for by the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement led by Omali Yeshitela and made up of organizations and leaders on the left in the Black community, held its first major mobilization on Nov. 7. The Black is Back Coalition’s demands call for the end of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and of U.S. support for the Zionist settler state of Israel and repressive regimes around the world. The coalition also calls for reparations, the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Jamil Al-Amin and all political prisoners from incarceration, and an end to police brutality, home foreclosures, gentrification and the prison-industrial complex. In all, there are 10 progressive demands directed at U.S. imperialism and the repressive state apparatus.... Posted Nov 11, 2009

After working for months without a contract, Transport Workers Local 234 hit the bricks at 3 a.m. on Nov. 3 to drive home their demands for decent wages, health care, workplace rights and fully funded pensions.... Posted Nov 11, 2009

A few hundred hotel workers walked off the job Nov. 5 at the Grand Hyatt hotel in San Francisco’s Union Square, beginning a three-day strike against Hyatt Hotels Corporation.... Posted Nov 11, 2009

Excerpts from a document written by Workers World Party secretariat member Larry Holmes in preparation for the Nov. 14-15 WWP national conference in New York City. ‘Our founders formed Workers World Party in 1959 in order to embrace and defend all the parts of what they called “the global class camp of the working class,” including the socialist camp and the national liberation movements, and to advance the position that the U.S. working class and its advanced organizations could not have a revolutionary policy and program at home or abroad if they cut themselves off from world struggle in order to make life a little easier. The party’s founders decided to name their new party “Workers World Party” as a way of driving home this fundamental principle.’... Posted Nov 11, 2009

Excerpted from a document submitted by Workers World Party secretariat member Fred Goldstein in preparation for the Nov. 14-15 WWP national conference in New York City. ‘As a starting point to approach the present economic crisis, I would like to begin with the theoretical framework of Marxism in order to stimulate discussion of an assessment of the period we are entering. In this regard, it is appropriate to go back to Karl Marx.’... Posted Nov 11, 2009

The Pentagon brass and corporate media’s reports and interpretations of the stunning attack at the massive U.S. Army base at Fort Hood, Texas, have omitted the most telling point. Far from an aberration, these deaths of ordinary soldiers and officers are an integral part of the last eight years of brutal wars of conquest and occupation that the U.S. imperialist war machine has waged against the populations of Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan.... Posted Nov 9, 2009

On Oct. 28, President Barack Obama signed the 2010 Defense Authorization Act, the largest military budget in U.S. history. It is not only the world’s largest military budget but is larger than the military expenditures of the whole rest of the world combined. And it is growing nonstop.... Posted Nov 7, 2009

Some 400 to 500 faculty, staff and students from the City University of New York and the State University of New York marched and rallied against midyear budget cuts on Oct. 27.... Posted Nov 7, 2009

The school system in California was once considered a global model for what a public higher education system should look like. Now it is quickly being dismantled by a political system that values repression over education, prisons over schools. The statewide protests that started last spring, following the passage of severe cuts in the California state education budget, are continuing and growing.... Posted Nov 7, 2009

“Bloomberg, you can’t hide, you’re on the bosses’ side!” rang out on a crowded stretch of Broadway in New York City.... Posted Nov 7, 2009

Losing a job is a scary thing for any worker to contemplate. It’s certainly scary for any worker lucky enough to still have a job with union wages and benefits. The fear of job loss has for several years led members of the once-mighty United Auto Workers to accept drastic concessions they normally wouldn’t consider. Nevertheless, UAW Ford workers have overwhelmingly voted down the latest package of contract modifications, sending a powerful message to their bosses.... Posted Nov 5, 2009

On Saturday, Nov. 14 and Sunday, Nov. 15, Workers World Party will hold its annual party conference in the public school at 127 E. 22nd St. in New York City. The theme of this year’s conference will be “Preparing and Organizing for the Future.” As part of the conference, the youth group Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) will host a workshop on Saturday in the school cafeteria. The workshop will focus on the importance of young people fighting for a better world and the obstacles they face.... Posted Nov 5, 2009

For three days, from Oct. 25 to 27, thousands of poor and working people from across the U.S. were in Chicago to directly challenge the criminal bankers and bosses at an American Bankers Association conference.... Posted Nov 5, 2009

At Baldwin-Wallace College, the FBI announced it was planning to hold a recruitment workshop.... Posted Nov 5, 2009

NYC transit workers on the move | Hotel workers prepared to strike... Posted Nov 5, 2009

As a plethora of “health care reform” bills circulate through the halls of Congress, a new movement is emerging on the streets—taking the fight for health care reform directly to the doors of the health insurance industry giants who, for all too long, have put their profits before people’s care.... Posted Nov 4, 2009

Fred Goldstein, author of “Low-Wage Capitalism,” was the featured speaker at two recent New York events: a Brecht Forum meeting and a conference of the Union of Radical Political Economists (URPE) in Brooklyn. He was also interviewed on radio station WBAI-FM in New York and KFAI-FM in Minneapolis. These activities were part of the launching of the new book.... Posted Nov 4, 2009

Trying to hide behind the transparent ruse of “free speech,” anti-Islamic Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders attempted to bring his hate-speech tour to Temple University on Oct. 21. He was met with student resistance.... Posted Nov 4, 2009

Funeral services for Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah were held Oct. 31 at the Muslim Center on Detroit’s west side. More than a thousand people attended the memorial from the Detroit area and around the United States. The Muslim leader had been gunned down by FBI agents on Oct. 28. In response to the assassination of Imam Abdullah, the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) has called for a mass demonstration outside the federal building in downtown Detroit on Nov. 5, from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m.... Posted Nov 2, 2009

On Oct. 24, International Climate Action Day, activists in 181 countries around the world participated in over 5,200 events in an attempt to raise awareness about the threats of climate change.... Posted Oct 30, 2009

On Oct. 22, over 3,000 members of UNITE-HERE Local 2 voted overwhelmingly—by 92.3 percent—to authorize a strike against 31 upscale hotels in San Francisco.... Posted Oct 30, 2009

Members of United Steelworkers Local 12934-02 and their labor-community supporters walked a picket line for more than three hours and then held a rally here on Oct. 22 to protest the lockout of 70 union workers by Carquest, a chain of auto supply stores. Bay City, with 36,000 people, is about 100 miles northwest of Detroit.... Posted Oct 30, 2009

“Hey Goldman Sachs, we want our money back!” chanted about 60 mainly young protesters from the Bronx in front of the posh home of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein on the morning of Oct 25.... Posted Oct 30, 2009

Cafeteria workers at Hunter College in New York City won a contract with AVI Foodsystems Inc. on Oct. 23 that includes free family health benefits.... Posted Oct 30, 2009

More than 1,000 people attended funeral services for Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah on Oct. 31 at the Muslim Center on Detroit’s West Side. The African-American Muslim leader had been gunned down by FBI agents three days earlier.... Posted Oct 29, 2009

Electricity was in the air Oct. 24 as hundreds of people filled the south steps of the Texas Capitol in Austin to shout loud and clear: “Todd Willingham was innocent!” Gathering for the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty, abolitionists from all over Texas, around the country, and a few from overseas turned out in record numbers to demand that Texas Gov. Rick Perry immediately stop all executions in Texas.... Posted Oct 29, 2009

The Workers World Party 50th anniversary conference will take place in New York City Nov. 14-15. A major focus of the gathering will be the global capitalist economic crisis and the great need to intensify the prosecution of the worldwide class struggle.... Posted Oct 29, 2009

On Dec. 8, 2003, former President George W. Bush signed into law the misnamed Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003. The evidence demonstrates that, in reality, this legislation has been a corporate giveaway to the same insurance and pharmaceutical companies that make billions of dollars by denying care to those who cannot afford it and overcharging those lucky enough to have health insurance.... Posted Oct 29, 2009

The highest court in New York state held Oct. 22 that Tishman-Speyer, a big landlord that controls 11,277 apartments in one major Manhattan apartment complex alone, must significantly lower the rents on over 4,000 apartments that it leases at “market rate” and put them back under rent regulation.... Posted Oct 29, 2009

The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ) coalition convened an urgent meeting on Oct. 17. Mumia supporters from Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C., were in attendance. It was a fightback strategy meeting of critical importance. Mumia, who has been on death row for over 27 years, is now, more than ever, faced with having his life snuffed out by the political powers that be.... Posted Oct 28, 2009

On Oct. 16, Alameda County (California) Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson granted a change of venue for Johannes Mehserle’s murder trial. Mehserle is the former Bay Area Rapid Transit cop who, on Jan. 1, shot Oscar Grant III in his back at point-blank range. Grant was subdued and lying on his stomach when he was shot. The killing was captured on cell phone cameras and broadcast via the Internet, causing a national outcry, as the cold-blooded shooting of Grant looked exactly like an execution.... Posted Oct 28, 2009

A fired-up action took place in New York City on Oct. 22 as part of the “National day of protest to stop police brutality, repression and the criminalization of a generation.” It was led by oppressed and militant youth.... Posted Oct 28, 2009

“Essex County has the highest rate of foreclosures in the entire East Coast,” said Larry Hamm, chair of the People’s Organization for Progress, at their first protest against foreclosures at Bank of America in downtown Newark on Oct. 24.... Posted Oct 28, 2009

An article by Sara Flounders on the Palestinian people’s resistance to the Israeli siege of Gaza has been recognized by Project Censored and included in its list of the year’s top 25 most-censored stories.... Posted Oct 28, 2009

Coordinated anti-war demonstrations took place around the U.S. on Oct. 17 to mark the eighth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and to demand an end to the U.S.-led war and occupation there as well as in Iraq.... Posted Oct 25, 2009

When the workers at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago seized the factory last winter, their heroism in defying both their boss and the Bank of America electrified workers and progressive people all over the country and even around the world. When they walked out of the factory in victory—with their demands for severance pay, wages and other benefits agreed to by BOA—they had accomplished what seemed impossible. Some 250 or more workers, mostly immigrants, had forced a giant financial behemoth, which controls hundreds of billions of dollars through its banking empire, to back up and meet their demands. Revealed in that struggle was an important relationship that all class-conscious workers should take to heart. The capitalist boss of Republic Windows and Doors, the exploiter of the workers in his factory, was just a dependent of his giant creditor.... Posted Oct 24, 2009



On Oct. 14 Lance Inc. and their Brynwood Partners were thwarted at 8 a.m. by protesters, including Stella D’Oro workers and their supporters, with unexpected help from nearby elevated subway tracks, when the bosses tried to remove equipment from the Stella D’Oro plant in Bronx, N.Y. Following a hard-won, 11-month-long strike by the unionized workers, Brynwood recently announced that it was closing the Bronx factory and Lance would reopen it in Ashland, Ohio, as a non-union plant.... Posted Oct 22, 2009

On Oct. 13, a 21-year-plus-10-month prison term was imposed on Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez by the same Florida U.S. District Court that initially condemned him to a life sentence plus 10 years. The steadfast support of the Cuban people and government, amplified with worldwide solidarity, forced the U.S. government to back off some of the unjust and wildly excessive life sentences imposed on Guerrero, one of the revolutionary heroes known as the Cuban Five.... Posted Oct 22, 2009

A small group organized by Kansas-based fascist Fred Phelps appeared in San Diego on Oct. 16 to spread their message of racism, anti-Semitism and homohatred. An outpouring of hundreds of counterprotesters gathered in front of the San Diego City High School... Posted Oct 22, 2009

Fifty-four activists and health care workers were arrested Oct. 15 during sit-ins at health insurance company offices in New York, Washington, Phoenix, Palm Beach, Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Reno and Portland, Ore.... Posted Oct 22, 2009

On Oct. 5 workers, faculty and students from both Hunter and Sarah Lawrence colleges were joined by union representatives and New York activists for a rally in front of Manhattan’s Hunter College against AVIFresh, an anti-union dining service corporation.... Posted Oct 22, 2009

Students, faculty and community supporters protested at the Department of Education Oct. 15 to demand an immediate rollback of tuition hikes and budget cuts at the City University of New York.... Posted Oct 22, 2009

̵Teachers rally against layoffs in D.C.| 6;No contract, no peace!’ | Carhauler jobs in jeopardy... Posted Oct 22, 2009

In 1959 Workers World Party was founded by Sam Marcy, Dorothy Ballan, Vince Copeland and other U.S.  working-class leaders based on the teachings of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. This Nov. 14-15 Workers World Party will hold a national conference in New York City marking its 50th anniversary.... Posted Oct 21, 2009

Oct. 16 is one of the most important dates in U.S. history. On that day, 150 years ago, was the raid on the U.S. Army arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Va. This military assault by an armed, well-trained, united band of Black and white militants was intended to be the opening battle in what would then develop into a widespread guerrilla war that would topple the system of chattel slavery.... Posted Oct 21, 2009

A monument in Oberlin, Ohio, honors the three Black town residents who fought with John Brown at Harper’s Ferry. The accompanying plaque explains.... Posted Oct 21, 2009

Mildred Loving, a civil rights pioneer, passed away on May 2, 2008. She and her spouse, Richard Loving, were the plaintiffs in the landmark legal case Loving v. Virginia, which challenged Virginia’s Jim Crow miscegenation laws. In 1967 the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided to strike down not only Virginia’s racist law but to prohibit all states from barring interracial marriages. Mildred Loving provided this statement to a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia decision, which was held on June 12, 2007.... Posted Oct 21, 2009

Downtown Atlanta was the backdrop to a demonstration of hundreds of disabled people demanding equality and the freedom to choose to live in their communities instead of nursing homes.... Posted Oct 16, 2009

A standing-room-only crowd of close to 500 people packed the Langston Hughes Auditorium at the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, N.Y., on Oct. 10 to commemorate the 75th birthday of legendary poet, playwright and activist, Amiri Baraka.... Posted Oct 16, 2009

An estimated 65,000 people snatched up applications for federal assistance on Oct. 6 and 7 in Detroit. They were applying for emergency funds to aid those facing imminent eviction and/or utility shutoffs. They hoped to receive some of the $15.2 million in federal stimulus money earmarked for Detroit under the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program.... Posted Oct 15, 2009

On Oct. 3, hundreds attended a conference in Chicago on the deepening economic crisis in the United States. The event, whose theme was “They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back,” was held at the Teamster City building on the city’s West Side... Posted Oct 15, 2009

Stella D’Oro, owned by the vulture private equity company Brynwood Partners, closed its Bronx, N.Y., biscuit plant and fired 136 workers. Management refused to pay the full amount of severance and other benefits to the workers although their union contract spells it out explicitly. Many of the workers have over 30 years of service... Posted Oct 15, 2009

Amidst the national debate about health care, a Chicago factory boss has cut workers and their families off from their health insurance coverage. The 70 workers at the SK Hand Tools factory, which is on 47th Street in Chicago, have been on strike since Aug. 25.... Posted Oct 15, 2009

On Sept. 24 in Chicago, 16-year-old honor student Derrion Albert, apparently heading to a school bus to go home, was caught in the middle of a fight between other students. Albert was killed in a scuffle witnesses say he was trying to avoid. The videoed altercation has been seen around the country and the world, with shock reverberating from the Roseland community on the far South Side of Chicago to inner cities across the U.S.... Posted Oct 14, 2009

Over 150,000 strong and overwhelmingly young, the sea of marchers demanded full equality for lesbian, gay, bi and trans people in the National Equality March on Washington, D.C. on Oct. 11.... Posted Oct 14, 2009

Over 1,000 unionized and laid-off workers came from across New England for a massive march for jobs here on Oct. 1. With unemployment at record levels and no end in sight, organized labor in Massachusetts stirred the local movement for economic justice to a new height.... Posted Oct 12, 2009

A Wall Street investment fund run by Wells Fargo rushed to foreclose on Belva Davis’ home last December. Neighbors and supporters braved snow and frigid weather to come out and show support as Davis began a long struggle to save her home.... Posted Oct 12, 2009

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela took advantage of his recent visit to the United Nations to meet a group of workers in New York City on Sept. 23. A large group of labor unionists came, including a five-person delegation representing workers at the Stella D’Oro Co., who have been fighting for their jobs for more than a year.... Posted Oct 10, 2009

How many feature Hollywood movies can you name with the hero a rank-and-file woman worker who leads a successful union organizing drive against a powerful union-busting corporation?... Posted Oct 10, 2009

Fired janitors demand justice | Locked out workers need support... Posted Oct 10, 2009

People from across the country set up a Tent City in Pittsburgh dedicated to the millions who are unemployed and homeless. The gathering took place from Sept. 20 to 25 during the week of the G-20 summit when banking and finance officials from 19 countries and the European Union met to discuss how to protect their profits.... Posted Oct 10, 2009

The Tent City—organized by the Bail Out the People Movement during the G-20 summit—fed hundreds of people three meals a day for almost a week.... Posted Oct 10, 2009

When the words “capitalism” and “socialism” appear in newspapers and magazines in the United States it’s a sure bet that we are in the midst of some sort of economic crisis.... Posted Oct 10, 2009

When the AFL-CIO convention met in Pittsburgh Sept. 13-17, a sign of fundamental change in organized labor was that 43 percent of the 1,000 delegates were women and people of color. On the agenda were a series of progressive resolutions that ranged from promoting diversity, empowering young workers and supporting single-payer health care, to ending attacks on immigrants... Posted Oct 10, 2009

Texas Gov. Rick Perry not only executed an innocent Cameron Todd Willingham in 2004, Perry is now scrambling to cover it up until after his bid for reelection.... Posted Oct 8, 2009

When Janice Langbehn’s partner of 18 years, Lisa Pond, was dying of a brain aneurysm, Langbehn and the couple’s three children were not allowed to visit her. Pond died in her hospital bed at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, alone.... Posted Oct 8, 2009

Charges of racial discrimination by parents of 56 African-American and Latino/a children against an all-white swim club in a Philadelphia suburb were backed up in a report by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.... Posted Oct 8, 2009

Sixty years ago Paul Robeson—fearless civil rights advocate, renowned actor and magnificent singer—came to Peekskill, N.Y., to give a concert. The event became historic in the struggle against racism and fascism when concertgoers were attacked by a racist mob.... Posted Oct 8, 2009

The renowned film director Roman Polanski is being held in a Swiss jail, awaiting possible extradition to the United States. He was arrested on a 31-year-old warrant while traveling to the Zurich Film Festival to receive an award. He faces charges for sexually assaulting a child in 1977 in Los Angeles.... Posted Oct 8, 2009

The grim numbers are in. In September, 263,000 more jobs were lost. Official unemployment edged closer to 10 percent, going from 9.7 to 9.8. This was larger than predicted by capitalist economists and is the result of 21 consecutive months of economic downturn, the longest streak in 70 years.... Posted Oct 7, 2009

More than 1,000 young people gathered in Arsenal Park in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24 to resist the G-20 meeting taking place in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. The effort was coordinated by the Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project.... Posted Oct 1, 2009

The leaders of the big imperialist powers met in Pittsburgh in September to argue over how to protect capital. They didn’t put forward one credible proposal to solve the crisis of the hundreds of millions of unemployed and underemployed workers around the world.... Posted Oct 1, 2009

While capitalist world leaders attending the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh slept in luxury hotels, unemployed, poor and working people from across the U.S. gathered at the Bail Out the Jobless Tent City next to the Monumental Baptist Church in the Hill District in the heart of the city’s Black community for six days and nights from Sept. 20-25.... Posted Oct 1, 2009

People from across the country who set up a Tent City in Pittsburgh the week of the G-20 summit marched to the headquarters of Mellon Corp. on Sept. 22 to demand a national moratorium on foreclosures and evictions.... Posted Oct 1, 2009

A major struggle against DTE Energy and absentee landlords has reached a conclusion in Highland Park, Mich., a municipality surrounded by the city of Detroit. DTE Energy shut off the electricity at an apartment building on Aug. 31, leaving more than 150 residents in the dark.... Posted Oct 1, 2009

“As God is my witness, it is hard to believe that we still have modern-day lynchings in this country. We’re paying state officials to kill our children. They are dogs, these people. The same cocktail that cannot be used to kill animals because it is too cruel, they want to use it to kill my son,” cried Anna Terrell, mother of Reginald Blanton, scheduled to be executed in Texas on Oct. 27.... Posted Oct 1, 2009

Vickie White was well-respected and loved by all who knew her for being a tireless community and political activist in northern New Jersey.... Posted Oct 1, 2009

Former President Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992 with health care reform as a key part of his domestic platform. It seemed then that the time was right for comprehensive reform.... Posted Oct 1, 2009

Workers at Stella D’Oro Biscuit Co. are still fighting to keep their plant and jobs in the Bronx, even after a hard-fought, 11-month strike ended in victory and a favorable National Labor Relations Board ruling.... Posted Sep 30, 2009

More than 500 workers at Chrysler/Fiat’s Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, along with labor, community and student allies, protested Sept. 25 against the planned shutdown of their workplace.... Posted Sep 30, 2009

Hotel workers protest coast to coast | One-day strike on 10 U.C. campuses... Posted Sep 30, 2009

Protesters marched through the streets of Pittsburgh on Sept. 20 demanding a real jobs program, like the public works program the Roosevelt administration enacted during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It was the first demonstration related to the G-20 summit.... Posted Sep 23, 2009

The recent mass mobilization of racists and right-wingers of all stripes in Washington, D.C., and in cities around the country requires the attention of the working class, white workers especially. In the face of mounting racism and efforts to divide the workers during an economic crisis, the struggle for class unity is more pressing than ever. While these right-wing demonstrations are numerically small, and may eventually die down, they are politically significant because they represent a de facto bloc between important sections of big business and the racist ultra-right, based upon an immediate common objective: to push back the program of the Obama administration.... Posted Sep 23, 2009

More than 100 patients, their family members, doctors, other health workers and community activists packed into the board room at Grady Hospital on Sept. 14 to press for the continued operation of the outpatient dialysis clinic, a function of the once-public hospital for 62 years.... Posted Sep 23, 2009

The real estate crisis is far from over.... Posted Sep 23, 2009

The spring and summer of 2009 was the 75th anniversary of three mighty strikes.... Posted Sep 23, 2009



On Sept. 14, 1,800 teachers from the working-class Kent School District in Washington state overwhelmingly ratified a new contract, ending their strong 18-day strike.... Posted Sep 23, 2009



Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Kathleen MacDonald on Sept. 11 ordered DTE Energy to turn the power back on at Highland Towers apartments. The building is located in Highland Park on Woodward Avenue near Glendale. The decision is valid for one week when another court hearing will be held on the status of the situation at Highland Towers.... Posted Sep 21, 2009



The days when the conservative labor leadership has been able to hold the working class in check are numbered. Its base is shrinking with each round of concessions it makes to the bosses, with each sweetheart contract it signs. As Sam Marcy noted, at the beginning of each crisis the workers are thrown back onto the defensive. But sooner or later they will cry “Enough is enough!” Then the tide will turn.... Posted Sep 18, 2009

Chanting, “Whose factory? Our factory!” a strong contingent of Stella D’Oro workers and hundreds of supporters transformed the annual New York City Labor Day celebration on Sept. 12 into a militant march.... Posted Sep 18, 2009

Hilton hotel workers’ contract fight | Fla. tomato grower signs with CIW | 500 groups demand end to immigration police program | NWU denounces Google’s violation of writers’ rights... Posted Sep 18, 2009

The Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver hosted author Fred Goldstein on Sept. 3 for a reading and discussion of his book, “Low Wage Capitalism.”... Posted Sep 18, 2009

Monica Moorehead and Larry Holmes, Workers World Party secretariat members, and Larry Hales, a national leader of Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST), traveled to Waynesburg, Pa., Sept. 13 to visit political prisoner and revolutionary journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on death row at the State Correctional Institution-Greene Unit.... Posted Sep 17, 2009

oud shouts of “Racists go home!” greeted Arizona’s Maricopa County sheriff, Joe Arpaio, and his cronies as he entered the Marriott Hotel in Houston for an event to promote his new book.... Posted Sep 17, 2009

A strong, multinational, anti-racist picket of Harvard University workers, students and community supporters took place Sept. 3 outside of the Harvard-MIT Data Center. The 40 pickets were assembled to show support for Ravi Raj, a worker there who has been under racist attack by his bosses for several years.... Posted Sep 17, 2009

Students face a devastating new reality. Along with the usual back-to-school jitters, students across the country must cope with massive budget cuts, higher tuition rates and decreased financial aid. Those students who manage to scrape together the extra funds necessary to graduate face a terribly bleak job market when they leave their campuses.... Posted Sep 17, 2009

After five days on strike, the 600-member chapter of the American Association of University Professors at Oakland University agreed to a tentative settlement on Sept. 10. OU has approximately 18,000 enrolled undergraduate and graduate students and is located about 25 miles north of Detroit.... Posted Sep 17, 2009

Community organizers, trade unionists and activists from all over the country are going to Pittsburgh for a week of demonstrations Sept. 20 through Sept. 26. They’ll be protesting the gathering of the G-20 governments, who are convening to discuss how best to bolster the profits of global capital. The G-20 meeting takes place against a backdrop of growing unemployment, poverty and homelessness, a mounting U.S. health care crisis, escalation of the U.S.-NATO aggression in Afghanistan and corporate devastation of the environment. Protests throughout the week will target the economic crisis, the environmental crisis, war, health care and other issues.... Posted Sep 16, 2009

Around 70 protesters from dozens of groups on the East Coast took on the Army Experience Center at the Franklin Mills Mall in Philadelphia on Sept. 12, with determination to shut it down. For a few hours, at least, they did. The center closed during the action and several arrests were made.... Posted Sep 16, 2009

With the Sept. 4 announcement that unemployment in the U.S. has hit an official high of 9.7 percent, organizing for the National March for Jobs on Sept. 20 in Pittsburgh and the Tent City in Solidarity with the Unemployed has reached a critical stage. Unemployed workers and their allies will be in Pittsburgh at the same time the G-20 Group of major capitalist countries will be holding their summit in that city.... Posted Sep 13, 2009

Four years after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, survivors living in Houston are still fighting to keep a roof over their heads. On Aug. 31, three women spoke at a news conference at the Kensington Club II townhome apartments to expose the owner’s corruption and the squalid living conditions he allows.... Posted Sep 11, 2009

It was a small group, no more than 50 people, but the chants could be heard up and down the block: “El Barrio unido, jamas sera vencido! El Barrio united will never be defeated!” In the spirit of the Zapatistas, the organization Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio (Movement for Justice in El Barrio) continued its fight against gentrification in an Aug. 30 protest at 116th Street and Lexington Avenue, in the heart of El Barrio in New York.... Posted Sep 11, 2009

As the G-20 gathers again, they assemble amidst the wreckage of their own creation.... Posted Sep 11, 2009

In 1925 U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon praised Italian dictator Benito Mussolini as “a strong man with sound ideas and the force to make these ideas effective.” Mellon liked the way Mussolini used fascist thugs to break strikes of Italian workers and to assassinate their leaders. That’s what Pennsylvania millionaires like Mellon had been doing for decades with their Coal and Iron police.... Posted Sep 11, 2009

The workers at Stella D’Oro bakery in the Bronx, who won an 11-month strike in July only to face a vicious threat by the company’s hedge fund owners to sell off or shut the plant this October, got a strong show of support at a major union meeting on Aug. 31 in New York City.... Posted Sep 10, 2009

American Association of University Professors faculty, students and labor/community supporters took to the picket line at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., on Sept. 4. There are about 18,000 students at OU, an undergraduate and graduate university 25 miles north of Detroit.... Posted Sep 10, 2009



Women workers, employed or employed, don’t need statistics to know how bad things are.... Posted Sep 10, 2009

Tenants of the Highland Towers apartment building, as well as adjoining businesses, have been living without electricity and water since Aug. 31. That’s when DTE Energy cut off services to the hundreds of people living in this building in Highland Park, a separate municipality surrounded by Detroit.... Posted Sep 9, 2009

The 60th birthday of Workers World newspaper’s managing editor, Leslie Feinberg, was celebrated at an event on Sept. 5 in Syracuse, N.Y., that also served to launch Feinberg’s latest book, “Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba” (available at leftbooks.com).... Posted Sep 9, 2009

After mass outrage throughout Detroit, the corporate-backed administration of Mayor Dave Bing has suspended plans to make large-scale cuts in public transportation. Several thousand workers, youth, people with disabilities and seniors attended a series of eight public hearings held Aug. 24-27 on the proposed cuts in bus services. Two hearings, sponsored by the Detroit Department of Transportation, were held each day at various locations throughout the city.... Posted Sep 7, 2009

Activists and neighborhood families gathered together in Northeast Houston on Aug. 29 to hold a powerful rally for immigrant rights despite a counterprotest by the right-wing Minutemen.... Posted Sep 7, 2009

“There ain’t no power like NUMMI power, cuz NUMMI power won’t stop!” could be heard for blocks in downtown San Francisco when several hundred autoworkers from the Fremont New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant picketed the offices of Senator Dianne Feinstein on Aug. 29. The workers have been protesting recent actions by General Motors and Toyota that will lead to the closure of the NUMMI plant by March 2010.... Posted Sep 7, 2009

There’s a comic strip character called Superman. His battle cry is “Truth, Justice and the American Way!” Unfortunately, however, “the American way” too often does not encompass the values of truth and justice.... Posted Sep 7, 2009

The resistance of conscientious objector Dustin “Che” Stevens has sparked a national petition campaign to free Stevens and the 50-plus other GIs currently held in the 82nd Holdover Unit at Fort Bragg, N.C., awaiting absent without leave and desertion charges.... Posted Sep 7, 2009

Boycott TV4 in D.C. area | Support Rite Aid workers | Bloomberg charged in bias suit | 17,000 AT&T workers win contracts | Labor Day: Demand jobs... Posted Sep 7, 2009

The New York Coalition in Solidarity with Hurricane Katrina-Rita Survivors sponsored a Katrina 4th anniversary event on Aug. 29 at the Solidarity Center. Gulf Coast survivors and their supporters reflected on the 2005 hurricanes and flood disaster.... Posted Sep 4, 2009

Guess what? There is a slight rise in some corporate profits. The corporations and biggest banks are doing a bit better. So the experts see a “recovery.” No big surprise, however. If the government spent $10 or $12 trillion to buy up the workers’ unpayable debts and guaranteed their loans, the way they have done for Wall Street, workers would still be exploited and underpaid, but things would not be quite so bad. Instead there are 30 million workers either unemployed or underemployed, with depression-level rates of joblessness in the African-American and Latino/a communities, and things are getting worse for them and their families, not better.... Posted Sep 3, 2009

The 1960s was a decade of worker mobilization, youth and student radicalization, and revolutionary struggle inside the United States and around the world. The 1959 Cuban revolution, on the eve of the new decade, was a sign of the struggles to come.... Posted Sep 3, 2009

More than 3,000 mostly union members marched from different points in New York City and rallied in Times Square on Aug. 29 to support health care reform.... Posted Sep 3, 2009



At a time when millions are laid off and unemployed throughout the country during the worst economic crisis since the depression of the 1930s, the Boston School Bus Union—Steelworkers Local 8751—has succeeded in round one of a long fight to protect jobs and vital services to the communities the union serves.... Posted Sep 2, 2009

Momentum is building for the National March for Jobs and Tent City from Sept. 20-25 that will confront the leading finance ministers and bankers of the world’s wealthiest nations who will be meeting in Pittsburgh for the G-20 Summit. In a major development, both the Steelworkers union and the United Electrical union—the only two international unions with national headquarters in Pittsburgh—have endorsed the Sept. 20 March for Jobs.... Posted Sep 2, 2009

In 2007 Alcoa’s top boss, Alain Belda, got $25,646,420– nearly a half-million dollars a week. That year the aluminum giant racked up $2.8 billion in profits. In 2005 workers at Alcoa’s plants in Honduras were making between 68 to 87 cents per hour, according to the International Metalworkers Federation. Alcoa fired all its workers in Honduras when the automotive market plunged in 2008.... Posted Sep 2, 2009

The two wars now underway in Iraq and Afghanistan are draining the coffers of U.S. imperialism. Overall militarization has largely been accomplished. New rounds of military development are technology intensive, such as laser-guided bombs, satellite-guided missiles, Predator drones, high-tech missile ships and fighter planes. Current imperialist wars are limited and heavily dependent on air power. The hundreds of billions of dollars spent annually on militarism are essential to the system, but, at best, military spending can only help to slow down the economic crisis. It cannot restart the capitalist economy and generate prosperity.... Posted Sep 2, 2009

Several hundred people packed an East Harlem church on Aug. 22 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Young Lords Party.... Posted Sep 2, 2009

Several hundred rank-and-file United Auto Workers, family members, union leaders and a handful of local and state elected officials, community and business people rallied Aug. 20 outside the UAW Local 2244 hall in Fremont, Calif. Directly across a busy highway was the sprawling, 380-acre plant of New United Motors Manufacturing Inc., a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota. Some 4,700 autoworkers are fighting to save their jobs and their plant.... Posted Aug 31, 2009

In 1932 Sir Arthur Newsholme, former principal medical officer of the Local Government Board of England and Wales, and John Adams Kingsbury, former commissioner of public charities for the City of New York, traveled to the Soviet Union to examine firsthand that country’s socialist health care system. Their observations were published in 1933 as “Red Medicine: Socialized Health in Soviet Russia.”... Posted Aug 31, 2009

The Mellon fortune drips with blood and oil from every pore.... Posted Aug 30, 2009

Many comparisons are made between the present crisis and the Great Depression. But while the depression of the 1930s is fully known, the present crisis is in its early stages and has yet to be played out. Many specifics cannot be known at this point. It is best from a Marxist point of view, i.e., from a materialist standpoint, to focus on what can be studied right now.... Posted Aug 30, 2009

The corporate media is doing another disservice to real socialists and communists by mislabeling Lyndon Larouche as a “communist” or “socialist,” as his followers attack and disrupt health care reform meetings. These activities add a new chapter to this group’s reactionary history, abetted by misrepresentation in the corporate media.... Posted Aug 30, 2009

The struggle to stop foreclosures and evictions is heating up as a sit-in to prevent the eviction of a Minneapolis homeowner and activist entered its 19th day on Aug. 25.... Posted Aug 28, 2009

It was 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 16 when the ceiling finally collapsed at the 181st Street subway station on New York’s 1 line. Bricks fell 35 feet onto the tracks, hitting and severely damaging a train that was in the station. Fortunately, nobody was injured. While the human drama of being in a subway while tons of bricks crashed down on it is clear, none of the New York press interviewed any passengers or the train’s crew. They followed the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s approach of treating this Sunday evening near-tragedy as a mere interruption of service.... Posted Aug 28, 2009

A wave of outrage swept the progressive community worldwide at the news that Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier was denied parole on Aug. 21. The U.S. government said Peltier will not be eligible for another parole hearing until 2024, when he will be 79 years old. Peltier, framed up by the FBI for the 1975 shooting of two FBI agents at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, has been unjustly imprisoned since 1976. He is an international symbol of the U.S. government’s refusal to respect Native nations and sovereignty and a symbol of the corruption of the U.S. criminal “justice” system.... Posted Aug 27, 2009

On Aug. 21 the Solidarity Center in New York City was filled with five hours of inspiring sounds: music and spoken word from talented artists (photo above) brought together to support the case of political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, known worldwide as the “voice of the voiceless.”... Posted Aug 27, 2009

Texas already had a reputation for executing death row prisoners at a rate unparalleled anywhere else in the United States. But progressive activists, attorneys, judges and legal ethicists did a double-take on Sept. 25, 2007, when Texas’ highest criminal judge responded to a plea for 20 extra minutes to file an appeal for a prisoner set for execution at 6 p.m. that evening with “Tell them we close at 5.”... Posted Aug 27, 2009

Hundreds of city employees and community residents gathered Aug. 19 outside City Hall in Detroit to protest budget cuts. Newly elected interim Mayor Dave Bing has already placed over 300 workers on indefinite layoff and is preparing the public for the idling of another 1,000 employees.... Posted Aug 26, 2009

On Sunday, Sept. 20, a National March for Jobs will step off from the historic Hill District in Pittsburgh, declaring that the unemployed, the homeless, the hungry and the poor must no longer be invisible and silent. The march is set for just prior to a summit of the G-20, the Group of Twenty finance ministers and central bank governors, being held in Pittsburgh Sept. 24-25.... Posted Aug 23, 2009

Resolutions of support for the the March for Jobs and Global Week in Solidarity with the Unemployed–Pittsburgh, Sept 20-26 were adopted by delegates of the San Francisco Labor Council on Aug. 10, the International Longshore Warehouse Union Local 10 executive board on Aug. 11, and by the Golden Gate Branch #214, National Association of Letter Carriers on Aug. 5.... Posted Aug 23, 2009

Pittsburgh made the Mellons rich. The city was hell for workers. A 12-hour day was standard in the steel mills.... Posted Aug 23, 2009

The unwillingness and inability of the federal government to enforce the few programs it has initiated to help homeowners and renters speak to the need for independent, militant, direct action by victims of banks and lenders—supported by their communities—to defend their homes.... Posted Aug 21, 2009

The meaning of the crisis and its ultimate direction are questions for the ruling class and for the working class, from diametrically opposed points of view. The bourgeoisie has no theoretical framework within which to begin to approach the question. Their system is anarchic. Even government intervention and some limited planning cannot eradicate the anarchy imposed on a system based on private profit.... Posted Aug 21, 2009

Revolutionary and radical activists have called for a mass demonstration on Friday, Aug. 21, the anniversary of King’s legendary “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington in 1963. The march will begin at noon at West 6th Street and Superior Avenue in downtown Cleveland.... Posted Aug 21, 2009

A mood of working-class pride was in the air on Aug. 15 as hundreds crowded in front of the Stella D’Oro Biscuit Company plant gates for a two-hour rally. The occasion was the one-year anniversary of the strike of Bakery Workers Local 50 members against barbaric concessions that were being demanded by the owners, the vulture capitalist Brynwood Partners.... Posted Aug 21, 2009

Protect postal workers’ bargaining rights! | Rite Aid workers demand contract | CWA contract with AT&T West | Court OKs use of company e-mail for union business | Immigrant groups demand action now... Posted Aug 21, 2009

Some 50 million people in the U.S. have no health care insurance and 25 million more are underinsured. Existing programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Children’s Insurance, each state administered, are under attack. In California, where budget cuts have drastically reduced access, 8,000 people lined up when a volunteer health group recently offered free service. WW reporter Gavrielle Gemma interviewed Ajamu Sankofa a Harlem attorney who is also former national organizer for Healthcare-NOW.... Posted Aug 21, 2009

The Pentagon and Congress are trading in their aging clunker C-20 jets for newer $200 million C-37 jets.... Posted Aug 21, 2009

Capitalist economists, experts and stock market gamblers cannot make up their minds as to whether or not there is a “recovery.” For workers who are losing their jobs, their homes, their health care, their wages and are deeply in debt, there is no ambiguity. There is no recovery. However, at the slightest hint of less-bad news—news that is not as bad as the news from the period before—the well-paid experts are quick to declare that a recovery is in sight.... Posted Aug 19, 2009

Troy Davis, 40, who has been imprisoned for half his life, may finally have a chance to prove his innocence. The Supreme Court, in a highly unusual ruling, on Aug. 17 ordered a federal judge in Georgia to hold a hearing at which Davis could present evidence to disprove that he killed an Atlanta police officer in 1989.... Posted Aug 19, 2009

On Nov. 19, 1945—just three months after the brutal atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan—President Harry Truman became the first sitting U.S. president to propose a national health insurance program. Truman unveiled his five-point plan for universal health care in a special message to Congress. He emphasized that “everyone should have ready access to all necessary medical, hospital and related services.”... Posted Aug 19, 2009

The new era of low-wage capitalism, worldwide wage competition and slowing capitalist economic growth has put workers under pressure even during times of capitalist upturn. The booms have weakened, benefiting only the bosses, with not even relative gain for the workers.... Posted Aug 17, 2009

“You could not run a coal company without machine guns,” sums up the Mellon style of labor relations.... Posted Aug 17, 2009

Iraq War veteran Victor Agosto was sentenced to 30 days in jail on Aug. 5 for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan after the Army extended his enlistment. Agosto returned from a 13-month combat tour in Iraq in late 2007. Victor told the court martial in Fort Hood, Texas, he believes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan violate international law.... Posted Aug 17, 2009

A victory in the fight to end immigrant family detention was won when the Obama administration announced on Aug. 6 that the T. Don Hutto immigrant detention center, located 35 miles north of Austin, Texas, would stop incarcerating families. “Today’s announcement is not just a victory for our Campaign to End Immigrant Family Detention, but for an entire movement for justice that has come together to close Hutto and to end immigrant family detention,” said Bob Libal and Luissana Santibañez, Grassroots Leadership activists in Austin.... Posted Aug 14, 2009

“Professor Henry Gates is right; racial profiling and police brutality are wrong” was the topic of a Workers World Party forum in New York City on Aug. 8.... Posted Aug 14, 2009

If the arrest, humiliation and resultant brouhaha over the case of Harvard scholar Dr. Henry Louis Gates has taught us anything, it is that we still dwell in separate worlds; ones which rarely meet.... Posted Aug 14, 2009

Manhattan’s New Museum has received recognition in the New York Times and Mother Jones magazine for its current exhibits of “Emory Douglas: Black Panther!” and “The Deeper They Bury Me, The Louder My Voice Becomes.” The political history and power of these unique shows by artists Emory Douglas and Rigo 23 will be on view through Oct. 11.... Posted Aug 14, 2009

About 50 years ago a new scheme was launched in the U.S. to ensure that bankers and mega-investors had an annual, tax-exempt, legal way to get taxpayer money transferred to them–debt service. Fifty years ago California paid most bills out of general revenue cash. Then they started selling bonds to investment banks and stock brokerages. Each year interest was due on these tax-exempt bonds. And every year new bonds were sold and the interest due (debt service) grew and grew.... Posted Aug 14, 2009

Supporters of the San Francisco 8 rallied Aug. 10 to demand that all charges be dropped against the last remaining defendant in this case, Francisco Torres.... Posted Aug 13, 2009

“When I was 15, my friends started going to jail,” says Victoria Law, a native New Yorker. “Chinatown’s gangs were recruiting in the high schools in Queens, and faced with the choice of stultifying days learning nothing in overcrowded classrooms or easy money, many of my friends dropped out to join a gang.”... Posted Aug 13, 2009

On July 9 workers and many community supporters staged a militant street rally in Rock Island, Ill., in front of a Wells Fargo bank to protest the closing of the Quad City Die Casting plant in Moline, Ill. Putting their bodies on the line to challenge the bank’s business as usual, the rally moved into the street to blockade traffic. Nearly a dozen QCDC workers and other workers refused to leave and were arrested in defiance. When asked by local FOX 18 News why she took such bold action and got arrested, QCDC worker Deb Johann stated, “Because I wanna save my job!”... Posted Aug 12, 2009

Over 150 protesters marched and chanted alongside Albany, N.Y., rush-hour traffic on Aug. 4, waving signs and banners against the FBI campaign of entrapping innocent Muslims.... Posted Aug 12, 2009

On July 27 seven young Muslim men were arrested in Wake County and indicted in the Eastern District of North Carolina’s federal court on terrorism charges. An eighth man is currently being hunted in Pakistan. All were charged with conspiring to provide support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim and injure people abroad. Sensational media hype and anti-Muslim post-9/11 hysteria swarm around this case, making a fair trial for the eight men impossible. WRAL, News 14 and other local media have interviewed random neighbors of the Boyds and aired racist and anti-Muslim assumptions. One neighbor said he heard Arab-sounding music coming from the home, as if this were relevant evidence to the charge of supporting terrorism. The media took the racism so far as to draw out Boyd’s past relationship to historically Black Shaw University.... Posted Aug 9, 2009

As far back as 1847, in “Wage Labor and Capital,” Marx discussed the question of the workers and the business cycle. Traditionally, during a capitalist boom the workers can regain some of the positions they lost during the previous bust phase. As the scientific-technological revolution was progressing “at breakneck speed,” there occurred a change in the historic pattern of the business cycle. After the recession of 1990-1991, U.S. capitalism entered the era of “jobless recoveries.” For the first time, employment either continued to decline or remained flat long after the economy began to recover.... Posted Aug 8, 2009

World View Forum is reissuing “High Tech, Low Pay,” the classic by Workers World Party founder Sam Marcy, on the party’s 50th anniversary. The first edition, published in 1986, soon sold out due to demand from workers and activists around the country. Now, requests for the book are increasing as the economic crisis worsens.... Posted Aug 8, 2009

The Rockefeller and Du Pont billionaire dynasties are hated around the world. Outside of Pennsylvania the super rich Mellon family isn’t as well known. They should be.... Posted Aug 8, 2009

It’s been two and a half years since the San Francisco 8— eight former members of the Black Panther Party—were cast into California jails and threatened with life sentences stemming from the 1971 shooting of a cop.... Posted Aug 8, 2009

On July 31 Judge Robert Drain of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York approved a plan for Delphi to emerge from bankruptcy by the end of August. Delphi is the former parts division of General Motors that was spun off as a separate entity in 1999. The judge’s ruling comes nearly four years after Delphi introduced the pattern of contract busting through bankruptcy to the auto industry.... Posted Aug 6, 2009

The push for meaningful health care reform is in peril. Congressional Democrats have advanced flawed legislation that fails to live up to their campaign pledge of universal health care reform. Republicans allied with right-wing “Blue Dog” Democrats have worked overtime to derail any attempt at reform.
Congress adjourned for the August recess without a floor vote on health reform, leaving many observers to speculate that the plan is doomed to repeat past failed health-reform attempts....
Posted Aug 6, 2009

Celebrate year of struggle at Stella D’Oro | Farm Workers demand heat safety | Latina/o worker deaths up 76 percent since 1992 | CIW targets Chipotle | Minimum wage raised—not enough... Posted Aug 6, 2009

Due to the economic crisis hitting California so acutely, state legislators are dealing with what they say will be a $60-billion revenue loss projected through June 2010. However, instead of trying to tap into many possible rich sources of funds, both the Democrats and Republicans came up with a budget that targets social services and the working class but not super-rich monopolies like the oil companies or the banks.... Posted Aug 5, 2009

A community/labor picket line and news conference were held in front of Cambridge City Hall on July 29 to launch a campaign against racial profiling. Organized by the Bail Out the People Movement, Boston chapter, the actions expressed solidarity with Harvard professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., whose arrest in his Cambridge house on July 16 has reopened a national debate on police brutality.... Posted Aug 5, 2009

The New York branch of Workers World Party will be holding a public forum on “Professor Henry Gates was right—Racial profiling and police brutality are wrong”, Sat., Aug. 8, 3 p.m. at the Solidarity Center.... Posted Aug 5, 2009

Protesters from throughout southeastern Michigan and beyond, including Lansing, converged on the brand-new multimillion-dollar DTE Energy building in downtown Detroit July 24 to demand justice for the Reed-Owens family and an immediate moratorium on utility shutoffs.... Posted Aug 3, 2009

More than 300 members from four major unions, joined by supporters from around the city, marched on July 21 through the Old City District of Philadelphia to Constitution Center, where a conference of state legislators were meeting.... Posted Aug 3, 2009

Solidarity got the workers at the Stella D’oro bakery in the Bronx, N.Y., through a 325-day strike to protect and maintain their contract. Solidarity is still needed as these mainly immigrant workers face other maneuvers by the bosses to break their union and deny their right to their jobs.... Posted Aug 3, 2009

Just a month after the U.S. Supreme Court struck a racist blow against civil rights in a New Haven, Conn., firefighters’ case, Black and Latina/o firefighters and candidates won an important victory in New York City. Federal Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis ruled July 22 that two versions of a written hiring exam used by the Fire Department of New York unfairly excluded more than 1,000 candidates of color.... Posted Aug 3, 2009

The first great upsurge of the U.S. working class erupted in 1877. Hundreds of thousands of workers revolted against pay cuts in the fourth year of an economic depression. One out of four workers was unemployed.... Posted Aug 3, 2009

BART workers vote to strike | CWA Midwest agreement with AT&T | Midwest teaching staff win rights | SF Labor Council shows international solidarity... Posted Aug 3, 2009

Newspaper headlines, radio talk show hosts and cable news commentators have all spent the better part of the last month warning the Obama administration of a possible repeat of the 1993 failed Clinton health care proposal. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid bolstered this sentiment when he announced that the Senate would not vote on the bill before the August recess as President Obama had initially requested.... Posted Jul 30, 2009

The economic crisis in California spells hardship at the state’s public universities as budgets are balanced through a combination of tuition hikes and pay cuts for faculty and other workers.... Posted Jul 30, 2009

The arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr.—a prominent African-American Harvard University professor—in his own home by Cambridge police on July 16 has shone a brilliant national and international spotlight on racial profiling in the U.S.... Posted Jul 29, 2009

The July 16 arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his own home in Cambridge, Mass., is but the latest glaring incident in the long history of racism permeating Boston, going back to the 1970s desegregation battles and before.... Posted Jul 29, 2009

The greed of DTE Energy Co. led to the July 16 deaths of four members of an African-American family in Detroit. The Reed-Owens family had their electricity cut off on July 15 by DTE for nonpayment.... Posted Jul 27, 2009

Charging that city computers were used by on- and off-duty white police officers to post blatantly racist and offensive comments to a Web site, the Guardian Civic League, an association of Black Philadelphia police, filed a federal lawsuit against the department on July 16.... Posted Jul 27, 2009

The Stella D’Oro Support Committee is asking allies in the labor movement and other supporters to sign on to a petition asking for an injunction to stop the sale of the Stella D’Oro company... Posted Jul 27, 2009

Benton Harbor community leader Rev. Edward Pinkney has won an appeal of his revocation of probation sentence which was handed down in June 2008. Pinkney, the leader of the Black Autonomy Network of Community Organizers (BANCO), was ordered to prison for three to 10 years after a Berrien County judge ruled that he had threatened the life of another jurist by quoting scriptures in an article published in December 2007.... Posted Jul 27, 2009

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Michael Jackson was many things in his 50 years of life.... Posted Jul 27, 2009

Leonard Peltier, like Mumia Abu-Jamal, has become known around the world as a symbol of U.S. government injustice toward the peoples it has abused and betrayed over centuries. Peltier has a full parole hearing coming up on July 28—the first one since 1993. It is important that all those fighting racism and injustice let the government know that they support Peltier’s release from prison.... Posted Jul 23, 2009

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published a report on July 2 confirming the growing economic disaster facing the working class. In June 14.7 million people were unemployed and the unemployment rate was 9.5 percent. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed workers has increased by 7.2 million and the unemployment rate has risen by 4.6 percentage points.... Posted Jul 22, 2009

Advocates for a moratorium on foreclosures, evictions and utility shutoffs joined environmentalists and supporters of single-payer health care on July 14 when President Barack Obama visited metro Detroit. ... Posted Jul 22, 2009

Pennsylvania state employees facing “payless paydays” took their message that this is “totally unacceptable” straight to Gov. Ed Rendell’s house in the East Falls section of the city on July 17. Workers had just received only 70 percent of their normal pay in what likely will be their last pay until the state’s budget crisis is solved.... Posted Jul 22, 2009

Six Democrats in the Senate announced July 16 that they will drop the card check provision in the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill designed to force bosses to acknowledge a union if a majority of workers sign cards to join the union. Capitalist media, Republicans, bankers and bosses from all sectors have come out in support of this compromise, since dropping the card check provision greatly weakens EFCA and stunts workers’ ability to organize against the millions of layoffs now occurring and for better wages and benefits.... Posted Jul 22, 2009

When 4,000 unionized workers at 40 Acme supermarkets, who had been working under a contract extension since February 2008, received notice in late June that the company planned to terminate existing benefits and impose draconian cuts, the workers made their struggle public. Finally, on July 16, the unionized workers overwhelmingly approved a new contract that includes the equivalent of a 2-percent raise, preserves health and pension benefits, and protects union jobs.... Posted Jul 22, 2009

Goldman Sachs reported quarterly earnings of $3.4 billion on July 14. JP Morgan Chase reported $2.7 billion in profits on July 16. The next day Bank of America reported a quarterly profit of $3.2 billion and Citigroup $4.3 billion.... Posted Jul 22, 2009

GM’s Chapter 11 filing, and its exit a record-breaking 40 days later, has been called a “surgical” or “quick rinse” bankruptcy. For workers and retirees, however, the damage can hardly be compared to having an appendix removed or to cleaning soiled linens. Workers represented by the United Auto Workers took huge wage and benefit cuts. Wages for newly hired workers are frozen at $14 an hour—one-and-a-half times the poverty level for a family of four—for the next six years. Retirees lost vision and dental coverage.... Posted Jul 17, 2009

The chant “La lucha continua!” (the struggle goes on) resonated on July 2 as an elevated train rumbled high above a large crowd of Stella D’Oro workers and their supporters. The workers, members of Local 50 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union, were returning to their jobs after a strike of nearly 11 months.... Posted Jul 17, 2009

The Barillas family just won a big victory against the war on immigrants. They had faced imminent deportation and family separation this month from the repressive federal agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Due to a barrage of support messages to government officials and two public protests, five family members who had been detained won release.... Posted Jul 17, 2009

The first in a series of Immigrants’ Art Exhibits opened July 10 at the Rio II Gallery in Harlem, in a beautiful ceremony complete with music, refreshments and opportunities to meet the artists. The show will be open there until July 24. It will then move to Arts Horizons LeRoy Neiman Art Center, also in Harlem, for another two weeks.... Posted Jul 17, 2009

Union victory at Smithfield | BART workers to hold strike vote | Hawai`i workers contest furloughs | N.J. workers ratify no-layoffs contract | Unions swarm U.S. Capitol demanding health care | NYC supermarkets forced to pay back wages... Posted Jul 17, 2009

Residents of the Wellington Commons on Detroit’s west side have won the right to remain in their apartments for another month.... Posted Jul 16, 2009

On June 22, when temperatures soared into the mid 90s during a heat wave, Atlanta’s water department turned off the water at the city’s largest homeless shelter.... Posted Jul 16, 2009

A three-day summer celebration of the Cuban Revolution’s 50th anniversary here in Detroit also welcomed the 20th Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan. The message carried by this caravan is: “The time is now! President Barack Obama: free the Cuban Five, end the blockade of Cuba, end the travel ban and normalize relations.”... Posted Jul 16, 2009

The International Action Center in New York will host a memorial for people’s artist Irving Fierstein on July 19 from 3-6 p.m.... Posted Jul 16, 2009

The racist treatment and rejection of 65 Black and Latina/o summer camp youth at a predominantly white, private swim club in Philadelphia in late June has unleashed a storm of outrage from around the region and across the country, forcing the club to reverse its stance.... Posted Jul 15, 2009

The New York Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition organized a press conference across the street from the national NAACP conference held in mid-town Manhattan on the morning of July 13. According to the coalition’s press release, the main goal of the picket line was to call on the NAACP “to fulfill a promise it made in 2004, in a resolution that passed unanimously, to the international community for a ‘new and fair trial’” for Mumia.... Posted Jul 15, 2009

The opinion rendered by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on June 29 upholding a firefighter promotion test in New Haven, Conn., that prolongs the racist status quo never mentioned a noose. That’s what Black firefighter Abdul Lanaird Granger found draped across his boots in his Brooklyn firehouse in 2005.... Posted Jul 15, 2009

Behind the scenes of the elaborate July 7 memorial service here for Michael Jackson were the thousands of fans who had come from all over the world. Without a ticket or a hope of attending the service, held at Staples Arena in Los Angeles, they came from every continent to pay tribute to an artist who had personally touched their lives. ... Posted Jul 15, 2009

As politicians rush resolutions through Congress supporting the protesters in Tehran, defending the principle of freedom to protest, their hypocrisy is even more blinding than their own myopia.... Posted Jul 15, 2009

After Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for his Ponzi scheme, one of his victims was interviewed by a local television reporter while leaving the courtroom. She spoke about how justice was finally served; that he got what he deserved. And, she stated, “It was important that the damage be repaired.”... Posted Jul 15, 2009

The first delegation of Viva Palestina USA flew with British MP George Galloway on July 4 to Cairo, Egypt, where 200 people and a convoy of trucks carrying millions of dollars worth of medical supplies will drive to the border of Gaza. The delegation will demand entry into that territory, whose people have been denied basic necessities due to the Israeli blockade.... Posted Jul 8, 2009



On April 6, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal from death-row journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of white Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner at a 1982 trial deemed unfair by Amnesty International, the EuropeanParliament, the Japanese Diet, Nelson Mandela, and numerous others.... Posted Jul 8, 2009

The following June 19 letter was sent by former Congressperson Cynthia McKinney to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to request that the Justice Department conduct a civil rights investigation of the case of death-row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.... Posted Jul 8, 2009

The U.S. Supreme Court released a much-anticipated announcement on June 29 about the appeal of death-row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis. A short statement said the Court had not reached a decision.... Posted Jul 8, 2009













Hundreds of African Americans and their allies marched through the streets of Providence, R.I., on June 28 to demand “Life, Unity, Freedom, Equality, Peace, Jobs & Human Needs.”... Posted Jul 8, 2009

When looking at Black culture years from now, though there may be many artists who were political and whose music spoke to and of the actual struggle for Black liberation, Michael Jackson—who passed on June 25 at the age of 50 from alleged cardiac arrest—will shine forever brightly.... Posted Jul 8, 2009



Organizers from the Bail Out the People Movement and the Million Worker March Movement held a news conference here on June 26 at the United Nations Church Center, along with other community organizers and some of the participants at the U.N. Economic Summit. They announced plans for protests at the next G20 summit scheduled in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24-25.... Posted Jul 6, 2009

“Wells Fargo got bailed out, the workers got sold out!” was the message delivered by UE members and allies in more than 20 cities from Boston to Los Angeles on June 26 in coordinated, nationwide protests.... Posted Jul 6, 2009

“The Great Crash” collects 23 articles that originally appeared in Workers World weekly newspaper from 2006 to 2009. This 47-page booklet should be read by everyone grappling with the current world capitalist crisis.... Posted Jul 6, 2009

International Longshore and Warehouse Union members from Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia, gathered in Seattle for the 34th ILWU Convention from June 8 to 12. The delegates adopted resolutions introduced by Local 10 calling for freedom for the Cuban 5 and by Local 34 to end the U.S. blockade of Cuba.... Posted Jul 6, 2009

Bob Herbert, who is an op-ed columnist for the New York Times and also an African American, wrote in a recent piece: “There are now five unemployed workers for every job opening in the United States. The ranks of the poor are growing, welfare rolls are rising” and young male workers over a broad front “are falling into an abyss of joblessness.”... Posted Jul 3, 2009

Chanting “They say cut back, we say fight back!” over 400 disabled activists and their supporters took over the street in front of the State Office Building in San Francisco June 23 to “Stop the governor from slashing programs for people with disabilities, kids, and poor people.” Seventeen people both in and out of wheelchairs were arrested in a civil disobedience action.... Posted Jul 3, 2009

Take Back Our Union “is excited and pleased over such overwhelming support from our membership,” TBOU spokesperson Charles Jenkins told Workers World. “Our members made an outcry for change after 8-and-a-half years of misdirection. They seemed to agree with our program.”... Posted Jul 3, 2009

Four thousand workers at Acme supermarkets in Philadelphia and its suburbs have worked under a contract extension since February 2008 while their union, Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, bargained with the company.... Posted Jul 3, 2009

June is Black Music Month, proclaimed so by former President Jimmy Carter. In honor of Black Music Month, there was a film series showing in New York at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture based in Harlem. One of the films, “Strange Fruit,” is the first documentary exploring the history and legacy of the famous Black singer, Billie Holiday, who popularized the song “Strange Fruit.”... Posted Jul 3, 2009

There is a war going on inside this country—a war against immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants. This war is escalating, and like most wars, it is taking many casualties. The casualties are innocent children, women and men whose only crime is the need to survive, to find a way to live and work in the United States.... Posted Jul 2, 2009

Relatives of the Newburgh 4 spoke on June 18 at a forum in White Plains, N.Y. Everything they said reinforced charges by the Islamic community that the FBI is entrapping innocent Muslim men for political reasons.... Posted Jul 2, 2009

A press conference and vigil were held at the San Francisco federal building June 26 to support Leonard Peltier and his upcoming parole effort on July 28. Supporters are being asked to write letters on behalf of Peltier, a leader of the American Indian Movement and one of the longest-held political prisoners in the U.S.... Posted Jul 2, 2009

Marches and rallies were held in state capitals and other cities June 27 to mark the National Day of Action for the Wrongly Convicted. Organizers of the actions, including families whose loved ones were put to death or died in prison, said that up to 10 percent of the 2.3 million-strong U.S. prison population may be wrongfully convicted.... Posted Jul 2, 2009

Pride weekend kicked off in New York City on June 26 with a militant march for trans and gender non-conforming (TGNC) peoples’ rights. The Trans Day of Action marched from Union Square past New York’s Human Resources Administration to demand that all people receiving public assistance, including TGNC people of color, be treated with respect and dignity.... Posted Jul 1, 2009

This year’s LGBT parade on June 28 was led by a contingent of veteran activists from the early years of the Gay Liberation Front. In the spirit of Stonewall and to mark the 40th anniversary of the early struggle for LGBT liberation, two exciting actions were held along the LGBT parade march route.... Posted Jul 1, 2009

The nightmare that has haunted thousands of Katrina survivors since storms and decrepit levees destroyed a significant portion of the Gulf Coast during the late summer of 2005 continues in large part today. Since hurricanes Katrina and Rita took place, hundreds of thousands of people, mainly Black and poor, have been forced to relocate to other cities due to the racist negligence of the U.S. government.... Posted Jun 29, 2009

Letter to WW: The article on the assassination of Dr. Tiller (June 11) was excellent.
I appreciate that the writer avoided the phrase “late-term abortion.”...
Posted Jun 29, 2009

Some 100 people, many of them movement activists, gathered for a rally called by the Coalition to Take Back WBAI outside the station’s Wall Street offices on June 17 to protest the ongoing purge of some of the station’s most progressive voices. ... Posted Jun 29, 2009

U.S. Iraq war resister Cliff Cornell was sentenced last week to 12 months hard labor and a bad conduct discharge for refusing to participate in the war in Iraq and for going to Canada in 2005. He was forced out of Canada in January by the Bushite government of Stephen Harper.... Posted Jun 29, 2009

On June 4 President Barack Obama addressed the Muslim world while visiting Cairo, Egypt. His speech covered seven major sources of tension between the U.S. and Muslims worldwide. He stated that “we should not ignore sources of tension,” but “we must face these tensions squarely.” Overall, however, Obama’s speech contained a good deal of rhetoric, contradiction and hypocrisy.... Posted Jun 29, 2009

The local New York City government led by its mayor, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, deepened its economic assault on all city workers and their unions when it announced proposed layoffs of upwards of 2,600 members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union Local 372.... Posted Jun 29, 2009

More than a thousand Philadelphia municipal union workers, many coming straight from work, rallied in the rain in Love Park on June 18 to fight for their rights. Contracts for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Councils 33 and 47, as well as for the city’s fire and police unions, expire on June 30.... Posted Jun 29, 2009

Martina Davis-Correia, the sister of Georgia death row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis, addressed the delegates at the 34th International Longshore and Warehouse Union Convention in Seattle on June 10. She called for support of a resolution entitled “Racist Oppression and the Death Penalty.”... Posted Jun 29, 2009

LeiLani Dowell says: The People’s Summit and Tent City in Detroit was by far one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had.... Posted Jun 25, 2009

The People’s Summit and Tent City was convened June 14-17 by a broad coalition of activists, many of whom were organizing under the banner of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions.... Posted Jun 25, 2009

Grand Circus Park is a small park in downtown Detroit bisected by Woodward Avenue. For four days and three nights, people stayed in that park for the People’s Summit and Tent City. A wide variety of people attended. Differences in national origin and ethnicity, age, economic status, sexual orientation, gender, location and other differences served to unite people. They came from all around the country, including Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.... Posted Jun 25, 2009

Andrea Egypt writes: The camaraderie and solidarity that was felt throughout the People’s Summit was an example of what is possible and necessary to fuel the type of resistance needed to effectuate a much-needed systemic change by those who have been left out of the so-called economic recovery.... Posted Jun 25, 2009

A lone man sat on a bench in Central Park on the edge of a mock beach holding a sign reading, “When do we Jews notice that Israel is insane?” Police told him that he must leave, as that area of the public park belonged to Israel for the day. But more protesters came, and they refused to be silenced.... Posted Jun 25, 2009

At a press conference on the steps of New York’s City Hall June 22, City Councilor Charles Barron announced that he will join British Member of Parliament George Galloway and anti-war Vietnam vet Ron Kovic on their humanitarian aid convoy to Gaza in Palestine.... Posted Jun 25, 2009

On May 30, three members of the local reactionary Minutemen organization invaded the home of Raul Flores in Arivaca, Ariz., murdering him and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia Flores, and wounding his spouse Gina Maria Gonzalez. The racists were dressed in military fatigues. They told the family that they were with the Border Patrol before they ransacked the house and shot them.... Posted Jun 25, 2009

Hundreds of activists, including infants and great grandmothers, held a spirited march and rally in Taylor, Texas, on June 20 to protest the incarceration of men, women and their children at the T. Don Hutto detention center.... Posted Jun 25, 2009

LGBT federal employees gain some rights | CWA locals hound AT&T | SAG signs new contract | Report slams U.S. over immigration raids... Posted Jun 25, 2009

In the latest face-off in the growing struggle between workers and banks, more than 100 workers at Quad City Die Casting in Moline, Ill., are now being told that their plant will close on July 12 if Wells Fargo does not extend the company’s loan. These workers are members of United Electrical Workers Local 1174.... Posted Jun 24, 2009

Shelley Ettinger says: When I volunteered to speak about Workers World Party’s history with regard to the party’s role in the lesbian, gay, bi and trans struggle, I didn’t realize what an enormous task I was taking on. The party’s contribution to this struggle is, in fact, a huge topic.... Posted Jun 24, 2009

Members of the Boston LGBT Community marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion by participating in a vibrant and passionate forum on June 20 with the theme “Stonewall 1969 ... LGBT Liberation 2009: Fighting for our Lives and Liberation in the Global Capitalist Crisis.”... Posted Jun 24, 2009

This year’s Pride march in Buffalo on June 7 was one of the best-attended lesbian, gay, bi and trans celebrations in this city’s history.... Posted Jun 24, 2009

UE is calling for a national day of action on Tuesday, June 23 to bring pressure on Wells Fargo and Wachovia—which Wells Fargo recently acquired—to extend the loan to keep the Quad City Die Casting plant open. The union plans actions in front of Wells Fargo and Wachovia offices in cities across the country including Atlanta; Baltimore; Boston; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Charleston, W. Va.; Chicago; Denver; La Crosse, Wis.; New Haven, Conn.; Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Erie, Pa. Also, protests are planned for Portland, Ore.; Raleigh, N.C.; Washington, D.C.; Salt Lake City and in Southern California. For more information about these demonstrations, see www.ueillinois.org.... Posted Jun 21, 2009

“A Black man’s life is still not worth a white man’s life in Paris, Texas,” said activist Anthony Bond. “I am 55 years old and I know racism when I see it. Paris, Texas, is eaten up with racism.” Bond was among 300 people who protested June 8 at the courthouse in Paris after the special prosecutor suddenly dropped murder charges against two white men accused of murdering a Black youth last September... Posted Jun 21, 2009

A new episode has opened in the defense campaign for Rev. Edward Pinkney, a Benton Harbor, Mich., clergyman and leader of the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization (BANCO). Pinkney had been sentenced to three-to-10 years in prison for quoting Bible scriptures.... Posted Jun 21, 2009

More than 300 protesters crammed the steps of the San Francisco Court House June 8 demanding that bogus charges, manufactured over 36 years ago against eight former Black Panthers, be dropped. ... Posted Jun 21, 2009

Kari Ann Cowan, Peltier's niece, reported on July 19 from the prison at Lewisburg that Leonard may have suffered a heart attack. She stated, "He had a hard time breathing. He was in his cell and had an ache in his chest. He was kinda scared he was having a heart attack. He raised his hands, breathed slowly and finally felt better." ... Posted Jun 20, 2009

The Tea Partiers are at it again. Having failed on tax day to mobilize “grassroots” support for cutting taxes on the wealthy, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich and company have found a new reason for existence. They’re bound and determined to unravel what they’re calling—believe it or not—another Teapot Dome scandal. What’s the latest scandal? The United Auto Workers union has given a substantial amount of money to the Democratic Party and its candidates.... Posted Jun 19, 2009

Having entered bankruptcy court (even a so-called ‘structural’ bankruptcy), General Motors is making history. It was once the titanic behemoth of American business, making more money than any other business.... Posted Jun 19, 2009

On May 7 and 8, African-American reporter Kathy Wray Coleman was tried in Municipal Court in Cleveland on trumped-up charges of resisting arrest, sounding a false alarm, disrupting court proceedings and aggravated disorderly conduct. A jury found her not guilty on all except the resisting charge. The charges arose from an incident after a tense foreclosure hearing on Coleman’s home on Aug. 7, 2008.... Posted Jun 19, 2009

Holding a banner calling for “Jobs & Human Needs, Freedom, Equality, Peace,” a multinational group of women led a spirited march through downtown Providence, R.I., on June 12 to the site of the National Mayors Conference.... Posted Jun 19, 2009

The Supreme Court has confirmed the U.S. legal system’s ongoing hypocrisy in the treatment of the Cuban Five. The court on June 15 made public a list of what cases it will hear during its coming term—and the appeal of the Cuban Five was left off the list, with no explanation.... Posted Jun 18, 2009

It was a coup. Even the New York Times, one of the most influential and authoritative voices of the ruling class in the United States, used this word to describe how the Republican Party, with two disaffected Democrats, tried to seize control of the New York State Senate on June 8.... Posted Jun 18, 2009

Hundreds of poor and working people have gathered at the National People’s Summit and Tent City in downtown Detroit to put forward the people’s vision of a future with guaranteed jobs and income, universal health care, housing and utilities, and all rights that working class people are currently denied under the capitalist system... Posted Jun 17, 2009

Against a background of epidemic police brutality across the country, the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Action Network convened a Community Public Hearing on Sunday, June 7, to examine the conduct of Philadelphia police and the Office of the District Attorney. For more than seven hours, individuals and even entire families gave accounts of their experiences at the hands of police that frequently turned deadly. The picture that emerged was one of systematic violation of human and civil rights by Philadelphia police, particularly in five police districts with a heavy concentration of Black residents.... Posted Jun 17, 2009

On June 10 there was a fascist attack on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. African-American security guard Stephen Johns was shot and killed by long-time Hitler worshipper James von Brunn, who was wounded and then disarmed by another guard as schoolchildren visiting the museum scattered in terror. The atrocity follows the May 31 assassination of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in Kansas after a long campaign in the right-wing media against the doctor.... Posted Jun 17, 2009

Leonard Peltier, a fighter for the liberation of the Indigenous peoples of North America and the world, has been locked away in federal prison for more than three decades.... Posted Jun 17, 2009

It has been five years since the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights was first introduced in the New York state legislature. Finally, after over 70 years of being excluded from labor laws, the 200,000 nannies, housekeepers and elder caregivers are gearing up for the final weeks before passage during this legislative session.... Posted Jun 14, 2009

On June 4, during Commencement Day 2009 at Harvard University—the richest university in the world—graduating students held up signs spelling “N-O L-A-Y-O-F-F-S” inside, while workers on the outside held up the same signs. For months leading up to commencement, a loose coalition of Harvard students and unions has been protesting layoffs at the university.... Posted Jun 14, 2009

A. Philip Randolph, a great union and civil rights leader, met Franklin D. Roosevelt and told him he had the power to take action against racism. Roosevelt told Randolph, “Make me do it.” And it is said that Roosevelt told CIO head John L. Lewis, “Make me,” when Lewis demanded jobs for the unemployed. If a progressive, class-consciousness movement of workers and activists does not try to intervene to fight for real jobs, then the right wing will take advantage of unemployment.... Posted Jun 13, 2009

Under a canopied “tent city” in the Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza across from the United Nations, more than 200 individuals and 35 organizations gathered for the People’s Economic Summit on May 31. The gathering was called by the Bail Out the People Movement to discuss the theme “Another World is Urgently Needed ... But We Must Fight for It!”... Posted Jun 13, 2009

CWA locals go after AT&T | Mich. State nontenured faculty vote union | Immokalee Workers win in Fla. tomato fields | Workers win card check   victory in Calif.... Posted Jun 13, 2009

Chanting, “Perry says death row, we say hell no!” activists gathered in Austin, Huntsville and Houston on June 2 to protest Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s 200th execution since he was elected in December 2001. Perry has surpassed the previous record of 152 executions set by former Governor George W. Bush.... Posted Jun 13, 2009

Fighting the insurance companies and their moves to buy off Congress and the Obama administration, 5,000 to 10,000 people marched in a Seattle rally demanding health care for all.... Posted Jun 13, 2009

On June 3, a strong demonstration of some 300 parents, teachers, students, school bus drivers and community activists stormed a meeting of the Boston School Committee, forcing the committee to backpedal on its City-Hall-authored “5 zone” plan for school resegregation. The demonstration was organized by the Coalition for Equal Quality Education, whose organizing has caused the School Committee to put off a planned vote three times now.... Posted Jun 11, 2009

Over 300 members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans community, along with their supporters, rallied in front of the 77th precinct in Brooklyn, N.Y., June 6 to demand justice for two lesbians of color who were brutally beaten and arrested by the police on May 17. The 77th Precinct, particularly notorious for police brutality, is also responsible for the June 2007 beatings and arrests of human right attorneys Michael Tarif Warren and Evelyn Warren, who are African American.... Posted Jun 11, 2009

Over 100 people gathered on Detroit’s west side at Euclid and Holmur on May 31 to protest the shootings of three African-American youths earlier in the month. Community residents and relatives of the victims say the shootings were unprovoked.... Posted Jun 11, 2009

When asked why he continued to provide midpregnancy abortions after decades of the most brutal attacks by the right wing, Dr. George Tiller replied, “Where else can women go?” Indeed, the loss of Dr. Tiller means there are less than a half-dozen doctors left in the U.S. who specialize in the vital, life-saving services he provided.... Posted Jun 11, 2009

For decades, New Yorkers have relied on WBAI 99.5 FM, in the Pacifica Radio Network, for radio broadcasting that provides real news and perspectives not filtered by corporate media. Now, the station is under attack.... Posted Jun 11, 2009

For the better part of the last 75 years, revolutionary peoples’ artist Irving Fierstein used his immense talent to depict the many struggles of working and oppressed people for social and economic justice and against imperialism. In the early 1980s Fierstein created a unique genre of art—striking full-color revolutionary banners thoughtfully composed and painstakingly painted by hand.... Posted Jun 11, 2009

More than a million and a half workers in the United States have lost their jobs since last December. Some 345,000 lost their jobs in May. Unemployment is at 9.4 percent and headed up to more than 10 percent. Well over 25 million workers are out of work or underemployed. Long-term unemployment is at a record. Nevertheless, Washington has given General Motors and Chrysler $17 billion as a reward for shutting down 22 plants, tearing up union contracts and closing 3,000 dealerships. And the government has promised billions more to the auto barons. These cruel measures will sharply aggravate the unemployment crisis across the country and bring further hardship to those still working. They must be stopped.... Posted Jun 10, 2009

Not so long ago General Motors, Ford and Chrysler were known as the Big Three automakers. Now that they’re not so big, they’re called the Detroit Three, but they’re still called automakers. Hyundai, Nissan, Tata, Fiat, Opel, Volkswagen, etc., are all called automakers. Why? When is the last time any CEO or executive actually made an automobile? In fact Michael Moore documented the inability of industry executives to even perform an oil change. So who are the automakers?... Posted Jun 10, 2009

The Bail Out the People Movement’s call for an emergency protest against a June 7 foreclosure auction demanded that “the City of New York, the Grand Hyatt and the Real Estate Disposition Corporation (REDC) cancel the auction, set up to allow financial predators to profit from throwing people out on the street.”... Posted Jun 10, 2009

An interview with Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke aired June 7 on the CBS television program “60 Minutes.” The Fed head talked about the multi-trillion-dollar bailout of the U.S. economy that has propped up financial institutions, banks, and corporations such as insurance giant AIG. Bernanke glibly stated he was prepared to double the amount if necessary in order to stave off a collapse of the system. Any worker or poor person watching this interview probably could not help but wonder: How come the federal government, which so easily handed over trillions of dollars to banks and corporations, does practically nothing on behalf of working people? Where is the bailout for them?... Posted Jun 10, 2009

The home foreclosure crisis in the United States continues to grow in scope and size. Workers are losing their homes at record rates as mass layoffs and plant closings affect millions. A new twist has been added to the foreclosure disaster, one that accelerates the overall capitalist economic crisis even further. What started out as a racist, sexist ploy by bankers and lenders to lure poor and working people into usurious subprime loans has now grown into an avalanche of foreclosures on homeowners with prime mortgage loans, mostly workers who have lost their jobs.... Posted Jun 7, 2009

A militant demonstration on May 29 outside Bank of America in downtown Detroit stopped the scheduled June 1 eviction of Michelle Hart and her elderly mother. Countrywide Home Loans, which is owned by Bank of America, refused to modify Hart’s subprime, adjustable rate mortgage as required by federal law. The demonstration, as well as phone calls from around the country to BOA president Kenneth Lewis at the bank’s headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., forced the lender to adjourn the eviction.... Posted Jun 7, 2009

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Detroit on May 21 demanding justice for Robert Mitchell, 16, who died after being tased by Warren police. Mitchell, who had fled from a police stop in Warren, was chased into Detroit, where he was apprehended, tased and later died on April 10.... Posted Jun 7, 2009

Gathering under a banner stating, “Another World is Urgently Needed—But We Must Fight for It!” more than 200 community, labor, youth, immigrant rights, housing, health care and social justice activists met on May 31 in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza for the People’s Economic Summit.... Posted Jun 7, 2009

Several hundred people crowded around the building housing the California Supreme Court on the morning of May 26. The six-to-one decision upholding Prop 8, the ban on same-sex marriage passed by California voters in November, immediately set the crowd in motion.... Posted Jun 6, 2009

Only eight hours after the announcement of the California Supreme Court’s prejudice-based ruling supporting Prop 8 on May 26, 5,000 disappointed, sad, but mostly angry San Diegans stormed out of Balboa Park onto Sixth Avenue and chanted their way to the heart of downtown. ... Posted Jun 6, 2009

More than 150 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth poured into the Community Church of Boston May 20 for an historic event in both Massachusetts HIV organizing and youth leadership.... Posted Jun 6, 2009

The cops were surprised when, at the end of the solidarity march to support Stella D’oro workers, protesters slipped past their barricades and charged the plant gates.... Posted Jun 6, 2009

Domestic workers are excluded from the protection of almost every major labor law.... Posted Jun 6, 2009

U.S. Representatives John Lewis and Hank Johnson, accompanied by NAACP National President Ben Jealous, visited Georgia death row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis for close to two hours on May 29. Speaking to a crowd of Davis’ supporters outside the prison walls in Jackson, Ga., the three leaders, convinced of his innocence, pledged to pursue other means to bring justice in Davis’ case.... Posted Jun 4, 2009

Local Native activists and their supporters demonstrated May 25 against the Atlanta Braves baseball team outside AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. Tony Gonzales, spokesperson for the local American Indian Movement-West chapter, stated that the misuse of the term “braves” and the “tomahawk chop” gesture “are offensive to American Indian people.”... Posted Jun 4, 2009

A small article in the local newspaper announcing a DeKalb County Board of Education decision to open a public high school as a Marine Institute this fall ignited an immediate response from anti-war groups, veterans’ organizations, parents, teachers and youth.... Posted Jun 4, 2009

The police are majority white in the U.S. but there exists a significant number of Black, Latina/o and Asian police officers. Racism and national oppression permeate every social institution in U.S. capitalist society, including the police. Officers of color have issued complaints against white officers for racist behavior, along with having to live under the constant fear of being “mistakenly” shot. This reality was brought home once again within the notorious New York Police Department.... Posted Jun 4, 2009

On June 1 General Motors—a hundred-year-old company that for decades was the world’s largest—filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This follows months of speculation, where “possible” became “50-50,” which then became “more probable than not.” Now the world is witnessing the downfall of a giant that still employs a quarter-million workers.... Posted Jun 3, 2009

The response of reproductive rights organizations was swift and unequivocal when women’s health care provider Dr. George R. Tiller was assassinated in Wichita, Kan., May 31. All the national women’s rights and women’s health care groups denounced the murder and hailed Dr. Tiller as a hero in the fight for reproductive justice. ... Posted Jun 3, 2009

Statement on the assassination of Dr. George Tiller issued June 1 by the National Women’s Fightback Network.... Posted Jun 3, 2009

Organizers of the People’s Summit and Tent City taking place June 14-17 in downtown Detroit have announced several demonstrations and other events as part of its four-day agenda. The People’s Summit will counter the National Summit, known until recently as the National Business Summit, occurring June 15-17 at the GM Renaissance Center.... Posted May 31, 2009

A diverse coalition of poor and working people across the U.S. will actively resist a big-business National Summit which will gather in Detroit June 15-17 at the Renaissance Center, site of General Motors’ world headquarters. Here’s a short list of the business summit participants.... Posted May 31, 2009

When North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue announced that all state workers would be mandated to take 10 unpaid hours off to help balance the budget, many workers began discussing how they could collectively withhold their labor by organizing to take the same time periods off. Then the state legislature began discussing furloughs of up to 20 days for all state workers. But that plan was soon taken off the table after seeing the mass outrage it caused.... Posted May 31, 2009

Thirteen doctors, nurses and activists were arrested in Washington, D.C., throughout the month of May. The protesters were detained on different days for interrupting the Senate Finance Committee roundtable on health care to protest the exclusion of single-payer advocates from the hearings on reform.... Posted May 31, 2009

On May 22 hundreds of laid-off Chrysler workers rallied in front of their plant in Twinsburg, Ohio. “The people have spoken, keep the plant open!” they chanted. Workers believe they were double-crossed when, two days after voting to grant Chrysler sweeping concessions, they read in the news media that Chrysler’s restructuring includes the closing of their plant and seven others.... Posted May 29, 2009

Hundreds of UAW members from Local 1700 rallied on May 21 demanding their Sterling Heights Assembly plant stay open and operating in Michigan.... Posted May 29, 2009

AT&T’s corporate greed exposed | Grocery workers fighting back in Colorado | Black farmers demand settlement | Statistics confirms need for EFCA... Posted May 29, 2009

On May 18, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a stunning blow to women workers, overturned lower courts’ decisions and ruled that AT&T, the seventh-largest corporation in the world, could exclude maternity leaves when calculating pension benefits.... Posted May 29, 2009

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, better known as Malcolm X, was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Neb., on May 19, 1925. The names he held reflected both his personal journey and that of oppressed people for whom he gave his life. The racism experienced by his family in the 1930s was routine—from verbal harassment to being burned out of their home, to surviving, as a child, the lynching of his father.... Posted May 29, 2009

In real life Travis Bishop is best known for his acoustic country music CD, “So Here We Go.” He is also known as Sgt. Bishop, currently AWOL from Fort Hood after refusing to deploy with the 57th Elite Service Battalion to Afghanistan.... Posted May 29, 2009

On May 20 at 6:20 a.m., a number of early morning trolley riders, including students on their way to school, were stopped and questioned by Border Patrol and Transit Security Administration officers at the Old Town trolley stop in San Diego. In a blatant act of racial profiling, people appearing to be Latina/o were singled out, and all were asked for citizenship documents. Twenty-one people, including three students under the age of 18, were arrested, handcuffed and quickly deported.... Posted May 28, 2009

Prisoners began a hunger strike May 2 to protest the degrading and inhumane conditions they endure in the jails run by the notoriously racist Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The crimes of Arpaio are well documented: housing inmates in sweltering tent-cities, parading them through the streets of Phoenix like slaves on their way to the auction block, serving spoiled food referred to as “slop” by the inmates, and denying adequate medical treatment. Arpaio has continued to try to whip up anti-immigrant hysteria in any way possible.... Posted May 28, 2009

Immigrants and their supporters have marched, rallied, picketed and even met with the mayor’s staff to express their opposition to the enforcing of immigration laws by Houston cops. At a May 20 press conference and picket line outside of the Houston Police Officers Union, activists made it clear that immigrants were a large part of the Houston population and must be treated with respect by all city agencies.... Posted May 28, 2009

Carlyle Group, the world’s second largest private equity corporation, agreed on May 14 to pay $20 million as part of an out-of-court settlement for its role in the “pay-to-play” corruption scandal involving public pension funds. The out-of-court settlement shields all Carlyle executives from any criminal liability.... Posted May 28, 2009

“Immigrant,” a bilingual community event on immigrant rights in Syracuse, N.Y., held in the Blodgett High School cafeteria, drew a standing-room-only, multinational crowd of more than 110 people on May 14. Some participants traveled from as far as Buffalo, Rochester, Binghamton and Manhattan.... Posted May 28, 2009

Mark D. Fussner died May 22 after an hours-long shoot-out with police following the bailiff’s unsuccessful attempt to evict the 44-year-old homeowner. Two 24th District Court officers had come to Fussner’s home on Anne Street, in the working-class downriver Detroit suburb of Allen Park, to carry out a writ of eviction after foreclosure.... Posted May 27, 2009

The People’s Economic Summit WILL go ahead on schedule Sunday, May 31 - Under Tents in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza outside the United Nations headquarters in New York.... Posted May 27, 2009

Demonstrators blocked traffic in San Francisco to protest the California Supreme Court's decision May 26 to uphold Prop 8, the law banning same-sex marriage in that state. There were demonstrations in 100 cities across the U.S., some numbering in the thousands.... Posted May 27, 2009

More than 100 vigils, rallies, marches and other actions were held across the U.S. and in other countries worldwide on May 19 in support of Troy Anthony Davis, the Georgia man facing execution for a crime he has always denied committing.... Posted May 27, 2009

As with all the other so-called “homegrown terror plots,” this case is being revealed for what it really is: entrapment. It is one more incident of an FBI informant going fishing, baiting, in particular, Black men and enticing them with money and other favors, directing their conversations and playing upon their anger against their oppression.... Posted May 27, 2009

Home foreclosures soared in April to a record-high rate. One of every 374 homes, or 342,000 homes in the United States, received a foreclosure filing: a notice of default, auction or sale notice, or bank repossession. Filings were up 32 percent from April 2008.... Posted May 25, 2009

The cruelty of capitalism is clear as more than 5.7 million people in the U.S. have lost their jobs in the last 18 months and hundreds of thousands of homes are foreclosed every month. Now New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has come up with a new form of ruthlessness for those suffering the most. His administration recently started charging rent to homeless people.... Posted May 25, 2009

Once again the military budget is rising, dashing hopes that the new administration would reverse the course of the Bush years. As many as 100,000 troops are being added to the military, with 22,000 slated to go to Afghanistan. The annual budget of the Department of Defense will go from $487.7 billion to $527.7 billion this year. However, the cost of the Iraq/Afghanistan invasions and occupations, which is counted separately, will come to at least another $150 billion for the fiscal year.... Posted May 22, 2009

About 200 parents, teachers, students and community activists participated in a spirited community summit at Roxbury Community College in Boston May 14. They said no to Mayor Thomas Menino and the Boston School Committee’s racist plan to return the city to segregated, “neighborhood” schools.... Posted May 21, 2009

“Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the USA.” Wow! Before I say what it is, let me say where it belongs: right next to Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States.”... Posted May 21, 2009

The crisis in the auto industry is spreading like wildfire. Beside the 25,000 workers laid off because of the latest wave of plant closings at General Motors and Chrysler, many others are impacted. Notices have gone out to 800 Chrysler and 1,100 GM dealers that their franchise agreements will not be renewed. A total of 103,000 mechanics, salespeople and other workers could lose their jobs.... Posted May 20, 2009

Lucia Paz spent the last 17 years working for the Food City division of Bashas’ grocery store chain in Tucson. During that time, she diligently performed her job duties: stocking shelves, running the cash register and assisting customers. She was a conscientious worker and was never considered a “troublemaker.” On May 11 Paz was terminated for “failing to follow policy and procedures.” What she failed to follow was never revealed to her, and Bashas’/Food City management refused to comment on the reasons for the firing, even to the mainstream media.... Posted May 20, 2009

Organizers of the People’s Summit, including a tent city, in downtown Detroit June 14-17 report momentum is building for the event. It’s billed as “four days of active resistance” to counter the National Business Summit held June 15-17 at the GM Renaissance Center.... Posted May 17, 2009

On May 9, three members of the Georgia Detention Watch made a second solidarity trip to the Etowah Detention Center in Gadsden, Ala., to deliver hundreds of pairs of cotton underwear to women immigrant detainees.... Posted May 17, 2009

Seven demonstrators were arrested May 2 at the “Army Experience Center” at the Franklin Mills Mall in north Philadelphia in the struggle against the latest U.S. crime against humanity: the recruiting of 13-year-olds.... Posted May 17, 2009

Capitalism is a system of exploitation of workers for profit. An example of what it does is going on in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. What capitalism is doing to 27,000 Chrysler workers, along with 82,000 retirees, has ramifications for our whole class. In fact, a spokesperson for Moody’s Investor Services stated, “The Chrysler bankruptcy is historic and may become either a template or a warning sign for future bankruptcies, such as that of General Motors.”... Posted May 16, 2009

In the midst of a national housing crisis, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has announced the eviction of all Hurricane Katrina survivors from the government trailers they have been living in since they were left homeless following the 2005 disaster. FEMA officials plan to repossess and sell for scrap metal the 4,600 trailers remaining in Mississippi and Louisiana by May 30.... Posted May 16, 2009

Robert King, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace are known as the “Angola Three,” a trio of political prisoners whose supporters include Amnesty International, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Congressman John Conyers and the ACLU. Kgalema Mothlante, the President of South Africa, says their case “has the potential of laying bare, exposing the shortcomings, in the entire U.S. system.”... Posted May 16, 2009

It’s often been said that the Senate is a millionaire’s club; but it’s more. It’s one of the most exclusive clubs on earth. It’s only 100 men and women, who are essentially princes and princesses of power.... Posted May 16, 2009

Army GI refuses to serve in Afghanistan | Iraq vets rally against stop-loss at Ft. Lewis | Cliff Cornell sentenced to 12 months for desertion | Case dropped against Lt. Ehren Watada... Posted May 16, 2009

The struggle to free death-row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is heating up in New York City. On May 8, an emergency, militant street meeting took place in front of Harlem’s Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building to demand that elected officials call upon U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department to conduct a civil rights investigation into constitutional rights violations against Mumia. Congressperson Charles Rangel, who represents the Harlem community, has come out in support of the call for the investigation.... Posted May 14, 2009

On May 19, from Alaska to West Virginia and from Argentina to Uganda, high school and college students, faith-based groups and progressive community organizations are organizing vigils, rallies and petition drives as well as the vital means of communication to bring worldwide pressure on Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and the Pardons and Parole Board to stop the execution of Troy Anthony Davis.... Posted May 14, 2009

On June 9 the Michigan Court of Appeals will hear defense arguments in the case of Rev. Edward Pinkney, leader of the Benton Harbor Black Autonomy Network of Community Organizers (BANCO). Pinkney was convicted by an all-white Berrien County jury in March 2007 on trumped-up charges related to false allegations of voter fraud.... Posted May 14, 2009

In Houston in April a Black firefighter saw a noose in the locker room at Fire Station No. 41, where he worked, and reported it to his supervisor. A white captain had hung it at his locker. Despite pleas to the mayor for an investigation, nothing has been done to the fire captain except being given a letter of reprimand. But the Black firefighter who reported this racist act was disciplined and also given a letter of reprimand.... Posted May 14, 2009

Workers to AT&T: No concessions! | NYC transit workers protest pending layoffs | Will grocery workers strike in Colorado? | Scholars, academics support EFCA... Posted May 14, 2009

The bosses are using the crisis to lower wages, shorten hours, reduce or take away benefits and worsen working conditions. Workers everywhere are made to swallow concessions out of fear of losing their jobs and having to compete against masses of other jobless workers. Where there is no union, the bosses are all-powerful. For the unorganized workers, from Wal-Mart to Starbucks to Home Depot, their only defense in this crisis of mass unemployment is to have a union.... Posted May 13, 2009

Over 200 people attended a May 9 teach-in and mass action organizing meeting in San Francisco to “Bail Out Working People, Not the Banks!” The event was initiated and supported by the San Francisco Labor Council, the South Bay Labor Council, the Alameda County Central Labor Council and the Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign. The organizing committee was comprised of progressive trade unionists and labor council delegates.... Posted May 13, 2009

Over 400 members of UAW Local 122 came together May 11 to try to stop the closing of Chrysler’s Twinsburg Stamping Plant in Twinsburg, Ohio.... Posted May 13, 2009

On May 11, some 500 workers at the Chicago-based apparel firm Hart Schaffner Marx, or Hartmarx, held a rally and historic “sit-in” vote to fight for their jobs. Many held signs reading, “Bail Out People, Not Banks.” Wells Fargo, a Troubled Assets Relief Fund recipient, has pushed for a bankruptcy shuttering of the facility.... Posted May 13, 2009

Dear Brother Fred, Early in December I received your autographed copy of “Low-Wage Capitalism.” I wanted to personally thank you for this very informative book.... Posted May 13, 2009

Economic activity in the United States shrank by 6.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009. That made this the worst recession in 50 years, with three consecutive quarters of sharp economic decline. The decline was worse than predicted by economists, who had projected 4.7 percent. Yet the stock market continued to surge right past this news. Why?... Posted May 10, 2009

Award-winning journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal’s sixth book, “Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the U.S.A.,” written from death row, pays tribute to prisoners who became self-taught lawyers to help defend the rights of other prisoners who would otherwise be denied legal representation. On April 24 and 25, the book was presented in over a dozen cities across the U.S. to open a new stage in the battle for Abu-Jamal’s life and freedom.... Posted May 10, 2009

Freelance journalist Diane Bukowski, whose byline appears frequently in The Michigan Citizen newspaper, was convicted May 1 on two felony charges stemming from her involvement as a reporter on the scene of a deadly police chase in Detroit on Nov. 4. She will be sentenced on June 1, and faces a possible four-year prison term.... Posted May 10, 2009

More than 70 people, mostly students, participated in the founding conference of Connecticut Students Against the War on April 25 at Wesleyan University... Posted May 10, 2009

WBAI radio supporters and listeners, many of them activists in anti-racism, workers’ and pro-liberation movement organizations in the New York area, gathered April 29 on just two days’ notice outside the station’s Wall Street offices. They were there to protest recent proposed changes in the station’s management and support WBAI general manager Tony Riddle and program director Bernard White, both Black men threatened with firing.... Posted May 10, 2009

The current economic depression will send the numbers of homeless in New York City soaring. These numbers are due to the systematic, deliberate capitalist displacement of tenants in New York’s working-class neighborhoods, especially people of color communities. It’s called gentrification—workers out, parasites with luxury apartments in.... Posted May 10, 2009

The Fort Dix 5 defendants—Mohamed Shnewer, Serdar Tatar, and Eljvir, Dritan and Shain Duka—were unjustly sentenced to staggering prison terms for allegedly conspiring to kill soldiers at the Fort Dix, N.J., military base in 2007.... Posted May 10, 2009

Workers across the United States turned out in mass numbers in cities large and small on International Workers’ Day to march and rally for workers’ and immigrants’ rights. Inclement weather in many cities and fear of swine flu was not enough to keep workers off the streets. This year’s May Day occurred in the midst of a deepening global economic crisis that has fueled widespread anger against the banks and government bailouts.... Posted May 7, 2009

Latina/o workers, along with workers originally from Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe, marched united on Broadway in New York on May Day 2009, in an event organized by the May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights.... Posted May 7, 2009

While immigrants and their supporters celebrated May Day elsewhere in the U.S., an all-white jury in Pottsville, Pa., approved the lynching of Luis Ramirez.... Posted May 7, 2009

2009 began with a rebellion. On Jan. 7, seven days after Oscar Grant III had been shot in the back and killed by Bay Area Rapid Transit cop Johannes Mehserle, the people of Oakland, Calif., rose up and rebelled.... Posted May 7, 2009

It’s still too soon to predict how widespread and deadly this new variation of influenza virus will be. Meanwhile, controversy is growing about how the new virus got started.... Posted May 6, 2009

In an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, Chrysler workers represented by the United Auto Workers voted four-to-one on April 29 to take major contract concessions. Yet not even 24 hours after the ballots had been counted, Chrysler double-crossed the workers and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. On May 4 nearly every U.S. Chrysler employee was put on layoff.... Posted May 6, 2009

Activists fighting the capitalist economic crisis have three important events this summer in which to participate.... Posted May 6, 2009

General Motors has announced new mass layoffs, plant closings and the closing of dealerships. If this restructuring is allowed to go through, it means a deepening of the economic crisis for the working class. It shows the need to fight against the capitalist system, which is at the root of the crisis.... Posted May 3, 2009

Students, labor and community activists gathered to hear Fred Goldstein, author of “Low-Wage Capitalism: Colossus with Feet of Clay,” when he spoke on a recent three-city tour in California.... Posted May 3, 2009

There are so many people eager, desperate, to find work. And we’ve all heard about the trillions of dollars given to Wall Street to pep up the economy—which hasn’t worked. Trillions! Who ever heard of such huge numbers before this crisis!... Posted May 3, 2009

Every petty politician is bum-rushing the mike to spout off on how pirates are “thugs,” “criminals,” or the latest Western curse, “terrorists.”... Posted May 3, 2009

Over the last several months, a series of dramatic cases involving police killings of civilians has brought to light the essential role of law enforcement within capitalist societies. Numerous cities throughout the United States have seen a dramatic increase in the murder of African Americans by cops as well as the escalation of raids and deportations against immigrants both documented and undocumented.... Posted May 1, 2009

To commemorate the 55th birthday of African-American political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, local meetings were held around the country to help publicize the recent release of his sixth book, “Jailhouse Lawyers—Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the U.S.A.”... Posted May 1, 2009

People of color have been all too aware of police brutality in our neighborhoods. We have all too often seen police used as an occupying force to terrorize communities of color. Yet another example is the killing of Annette Garcia.... Posted May 1, 2009

Survivors of Hurricane Katrina are finally getting their day in court. In a trial currently under way in New Orleans, a group of residents is holding the Army Corps of Engineers responsible for the flooding that occurred in the wake of Katrina.... Posted May 1, 2009

Revolutionary priest and professor Luis Barrios has been subjected to abuse and solitary confinement at Manhattan Correction Center since March 9. The Rev. Barrios is serving a 60-day sentence there for “trespassing on government property” during a protest last fall at the School of the Americas, located at Fort Benning, Ga.... Posted May 1, 2009

Once more, just as every year since 2006, there will be May Day demonstrations around the United States on May 1. May Day actions, large and small, already signal an enormous political and social development. Large ones will have more impact, but no matter the size of the actions, these yearly marches have revived May Day in the U.S. ... Posted Apr 30, 2009

The May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights held a press conference on April 27 to announce plans for the May Day rally and march scheduled for Union Square in New York on May 1. One of the main messages raised at the press conference is the demand that President Barack Obama pass fair and humane immigration reform which would include the elimination of deportations and raids against immigrant workers and their families.... Posted Apr 30, 2009

Hundreds of City College of New York students and faculty supporters walked out in protest of a $300-per-semester tuition hike and faculty cutbacks on April 22. The CCNY protest was lively and linked the struggle for student rights with solidarity for striking Stella D’oro workers from Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Local 50 in the Bronx.... Posted Apr 30, 2009

Resolution in support of striking Stella D’Oro workers passed by the New York State United Teachers on April 4.... Posted Apr 30, 2009

Organizing for the June 14-17 People’s Summit and Tent City in Detroit is building fast. A planning meeting April 25 was attended by representatives from a broad base of progressive organizations. They included the Autoworkers Caravan, which has been in the forefront of challenging the massive attacks on auto workers’ wages and benefits; the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions; disabled activists from Warriors on Wheels; Call ’Em Out; the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization; the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality; and the National Lawyers Guild. Two UAW members from Toledo, Ohio, also attended.... Posted Apr 30, 2009

Another success has been achieved in the campaign to make emergency contraceptive (EC) available to all women who need it... Posted Apr 30, 2009

In a Brookings Institute study released April 6, Detroit topped the list of urban areas suffering from “job sprawl.” In the Detroit metropolitan region, encompassing the area within a 35-mile radius drawn from the city’s center, more than 77 percent of the jobs are located at least 10 miles away. Only 7 percent of the jobs are within three miles of the core. Not only in Detroit but in all of the 98 largest urban areas studied, the “job sprawl” trend is leading to greater impoverishment in the cities and a huge income and employment gap between white workers and workers of color.... Posted Apr 30, 2009

AT&T workers fighting back | SAG to vote on new contract | May Day work stoppage in Puerto Rico | Commemorate workers on April 28 | New unemployment resource | Stella D’Oro strike support... Posted Apr 30, 2009

On April 14, right-wing racist and anti-immigrant bigot Tom Tancredo came to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill to speak. While Tancredo’s racist speeches have been challenged by students before, nothing in the ex-congressperson’s career could have prepared him for the fiercely loud and principled stand taken by UNC students on April 14. More than 300 protesters from various student organizations showed up at Bingham Hall to give a strong denunciation of Tancredo and everything that these xenophobic reactionaries stand for.... Posted Apr 29, 2009

Another tragedy has occurred in Baltimore as a result of a utility shut-off. The community has once again felt the pain and loss from another house fire. This fire has taken the life of a 7-year-old girl and her grandmother in East Baltimore. The blaze resulted from candle use after the family’s gas and electricity had been shut off. Similar to Betty Godfrey, a 61-year-old woman in West Baltimore who lost her life to a house fire, their utilities were off for close to a year.... Posted Apr 29, 2009

A new coalition of parents, teachers, students and community activists has come together in Boston to defend the right to equal, quality education for the city’s African-American, Latino/a and Asian communities. The Coalition for Equal, Quality Education came together in response to plans by the school department to change Boston’s student assignment plan in a way that would reduce community access to the best educational resources.... Posted Apr 29, 2009

Georgia Detention Watch members are in the final stages of planning a second solidarity visit to women detainees held in the Etowah Detention Center in Gadsden, Ala., on May 9. Organizers chose the Mother’s Day weekend to highlight the cruel separation of families caused by the immigration policies carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.... Posted Apr 29, 2009

An estimated 200 immigrant detainees at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos, Texas, are staging a hunger strike to protest physical and verbal abuse by guards, a lack of medical care and legal assistance, unsanitary living conditions and other violations of due process... Posted Apr 29, 2009

Since the Bush administration made the initial loans to Chrysler and GM, the government has brazenly interfered in the collective bargaining process. The “deeper” restructuring of the auto companies the ruling class insists on is forcing workers to pay the cost with yet another round of layoffs. The question no one in the capitalist media is asking is this: How did the auto companies become so mired in debt to begin with? Hint. The answer can be found on Wall Street.... Posted Apr 26, 2009

If an unemployed worker steals a loaf of bread, she or he goes to jail. Bankers who have stolen New York City, however, go home to their mansions. The banks’ “legal” robbery is responsible for unemployment, poverty and the deprivation of our children. Their culpability needs to be exposed and challenged.... Posted Apr 26, 2009

Where fatalities have occurred on the job, OSHA is supposed to oversee the enforcement of its rules. However, an audit of OSHA’s program for employers with fatalities, released March 31, found that those who qualified for the Enhanced Enforcement Program were almost always overlooked—97 percent of the time.... Posted Apr 26, 2009

Delegates to the San Francisco Labor Council on April 13, by a vote of 45 to 40, defeated a right-wing attempt to revoke a previously passed resolution that demanded justice for the San Francisco 8.... Posted Apr 26, 2009

Many worldwide know that U.S. use of torture, as serious as this is, was only one part of the Bush administration’s criminal conspiracy to carry out the illegal and unjustifiable invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. These criminal adventures resulted in the deaths of over a million Iraqis, tens of thousands of Afghans and thousands of U.S. troops. There would be widespread support here and worldwide for prosecuting Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and company for their many war crimes, including the torture of prisoners.... Posted Apr 24, 2009

The struggle for lesbian, gay, bi and trans (LGBT) equal rights under bourgeois marriage law won back-to-back victories this month with the extension of full marriage rights to same-sex couples in Vermont and Iowa. These two states joined Massachusetts and Connecticut as the only states to perform same-sex marriages.... Posted Apr 24, 2009

The Southern California Immigration Coalition Conference, a coalition of several dozen organizations, successfully gathered nearly 400 people from across the region on April 11 with the objective of “building unity between different sectors of the community to unite around this struggle—from elected officials, to students, to workers, to professionals, to leaders from the LGBT community, to teachers and parents, to community leaders, to union leaders, to intellectuals and to many more.”... Posted Apr 24, 2009

“Innocence matters.” These two words express the mantra of the international movement to stop the execution of Troy Anthony Davis. Davis’s conviction in the killing of off-duty Savannah policeman Mark McPhail in August 1989 is solely based on tainted eyewitness testimony. Davis has consistently and repeatedly asserted his innocence.... Posted Apr 22, 2009

Political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal will be 55 on April 24. His family, friends and supporters are observing the day with a worldwide “Honk for Mumia” and other displays of resistance to demand freedom for this world-famous African-American journalist held on Pennsylvania’s death row.... Posted Apr 22, 2009

An e-mail campaign launched on April 15 by the New York Free Mumia Coalition, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Millions for Mumia and the International Action Center to demand that the Justice Department initiate a civil rights investigation addressing a 27-year history of prosecutorial and judicial violations of Mumia’s constitutional rights.... Posted Apr 22, 2009

Over 50 protesters braved stormy weather and a reign of terror on April 20 to gather outside the headquarters of the Fraternal Order of Police and take a stand against police brutality in the Black community. Rally organizers charged that in the Philadelphia area 36 unarmed Black men were killed by police between May 2008 and April 2009.... Posted Apr 22, 2009

Robert Mitchell, 16, affectionately known as “Tazzy” by his family and friends, has become one of the latest victims of tasing by law enforcement.... Posted Apr 22, 2009



A stunning one-third of the more than 800 bird species in the U.S. are endangered, threatened or in decline, due primarily to climate change and habitat loss.... Posted Apr 18, 2009

Gary Schaefer came to Youth Against War & Fascism, the youth group of Workers World Party, in 1968, a tumultuous time when the Black liberation and anti-imperialist struggles were on the rise. Born into a union family, Gary was a shop steward in Teamsters Local 10 at RCA Communications. What stood out in the 1960s was that he was an anti-racist worker.... Posted Apr 18, 2009

A resolution adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council.... Posted Apr 18, 2009

A debate is heating up in the ruling class over whether or not an economic recovery is coming. Workers should be aware of two important points: first, the global picture of the capitalist crisis points in very drastic directions; and second, whatever recovery the bosses are talking about is a recovery for the profit makers and not the workers.... Posted Apr 16, 2009

Power 4 the People, a committee of the Bail Out the People Movement—which marched April 3-4 against the big banks on Wall Street—along with the Coalition to Re-regulate BGE and the Network to Stop Foreclosures & Evictions marched on the lavish Baltimore home of Constellation/BGE (Baltimore Gas & Electric) CEO Mayo Shattuck on April 6.... Posted Apr 16, 2009

Since 1996 mothers on public assistance have been subject to a five-year limit on benefits. In Ohio the state limit is only three years, during which time recipients must work 30 hours per week for a below-minimum wage. Prisscilla Cooper, CEO and President of Family Connection Center, is leading a fight for a moratorium on time limits.... Posted Apr 16, 2009

A step forward in giving legal protection to women accessing essential reproductive health services at New York City clinics and to their staff occurred on April 2 when the City Council overwhelmingly passed the Clinic Access Bill.... Posted Apr 16, 2009

AT&T workers vote to strike * National Labor Coordinating Committee established * Actors reach deal about commercials * Two unions to jointly organize hospital workers * AFL-CIO says nix Prop 8 * Support Parsons’ fine arts faculty... Posted Apr 16, 2009

Reaction to the Supreme Court’s denial on April 6 of a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal based on charges of racism in his 1982 court proceedings was swift and wide-spread. Members of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and their supporters quickly took to the internet and airwaves to get out word about the impact of this decision and call for meetings to organize the next stage in the struggle to win justice for this world-renowned political prisoner still sitting on Pennsylvania’s death row.... Posted Apr 15, 2009

Instead of bailing out mega-corporations that have sucked the life blood from the community, endorsed slavery, raided pensions, decimated savings, created the perfect environment for scams and put homeowners, renters and their families out on the street—FREE MUMIA!... Posted Apr 15, 2009

On April 10, approximately 60 students occupied the New School ’s Albert List Academic Building in New York. They demanded the resignation of both President Bob Kerrey and Executive Vice-President James Murtha and an end to tuition hikes. Kerrey has come under fire since his 2001 appointment as president of the New School because of his role in the February 1969 Thanh Phong massacre in Vietnam. Eyewitnesses have reported that Kerrey participated in the cold-blooded murder of civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, while leading a SEAL team mission.... Posted Apr 15, 2009

According to a Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union complaint, Russell Mills, the white police chief of Homer, La., a small town of 3,800 people 50 miles northeast of Shreveport, said to the Chicago Tribune: “If I see three or four young black men walking down the street, I have to stop them and check their names. I want them to be afraid every time they see the police that they might get arrested.”... Posted Apr 15, 2009

“Job Loss/Homelessness Up - Capitalism’s Latest Crisis” is the theme of a meeting at SEIU Local 721 in Los Angeles on Thursday, April 23, from 7 p.m. to 9:30 pm.... Posted Apr 15, 2009

Workers on the shop floor know what is in store when they hear “lean, mean and competitive.” It was the bosses, now crying poverty, who paid auto workers to attend compulsory classes on “lean manufacturing.” What they call lean—which is supposed to mean less fat—in reality means tearing out the heart of shop floor operations: the hourly worker.... Posted Apr 12, 2009

An effort to tank any attempts at health care reform under consideration in Congress was recently launched by Richard Scott, the disgraced former CEO of Columbia/HCA. Scott has been making his rounds with lawmakers, and formed a new group to oppose changes in the country’s broken health care system.... Posted Apr 12, 2009

Immigrant small shop owners are coming forward with disturbingly similar accounts of police drug raids that began with the destruction of private surveillance cameras and ended with the looting of cash and merchandise from their shops by members of the department’s undercover Narcotics Field Unit.... Posted Apr 12, 2009

The period of the 1950s to the late 1960s saw the rise of many organizations of the nationally oppressed that used violence as a means of self-defense. Not only did these organizations protect their people from racist violence, including police brutality, but they also defended the culture of the oppressed group.... Posted Apr 12, 2009

While May Day has historically been a day of workers’ solidarity and a celebration of labor power, this is not a day or year like any other. That’s because many nations are in the midst of economic recession and financial failure, and it is workers worldwide who are suffering from layoffs and mass firings in almost every sector of the global economy.... Posted Apr 12, 2009

Black Workers For Justice holds regular Sunday “activist brunches” for its members and allies in Raleigh, N.C. to discuss broader political developments and issues relevant to local anti-racist and pro-worker campaigns. On April 5, Fred Goldstein, author of the new book, “Low-Wage Capitalism,” and a leader of Workers World Party, co-led a discussion on the current global economic crisis.... Posted Apr 11, 2009

For the past 26 years, Black Workers For Justice has held its annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Support for Labor Banquet to help reaffirm the commitment to the ongoing struggle for Black liberation and for full workers’ rights especially in the U.S. South.... Posted Apr 11, 2009

Mohamed Shnewer is one of the Fort Dix 5, accused and convicted along with Serdar Tatar and Dritan, Eljivir and Shain Duka of conspiring to kill soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J. Shnewer’s sentencing hearing is scheduled before a federal judge at the end of April. His family contacted Workers World to get out the truth about his case.... Posted Apr 11, 2009

While talk about signs of a possible economic recovery drove the stock market up for four weeks in a row, beginning March 10, it is clear that the recovery being talked about was a recovery of the bosses and bankers, not the workers. Three quarters of a million workers lost their jobs during those four weeks.... Posted Apr 9, 2009

From March 25 to 27, community, labor and student activists in Cleveland joined Fred Goldstein, author of “Low-Wage Capitalism: Colossus with Feet of Clay,” in discussions on the current economic crisis and prospects for working-class resistance.... Posted Apr 9, 2009

Fred Goldstein, author of the recently published book, “Low-Wage Capitalism,” is on tour in California.... Posted Apr 9, 2009



Their chants echoing off the tall buildings of New York’s financial district, a thousand people marched and rallied at Wall Street April 3 to demand a bailout of the people, not the banks. Protesters called for a real jobs program and a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions.... Posted Apr 8, 2009

Students and youth from campuses and towns all over the region rallied on April 3 in front of the Bank of America and Wachovia financial centers to demand, “Bail out the students, not banks!” Both banks are headquartered in North Carolina and are the recipients of billions of dollars of federal bailout money and the two biggest holders of student loan debt.... Posted Apr 8, 2009

At the Bank of America Plaza in Los Angeles spirited demonstrators echoed chants off the towering Bank of America corporate building calling for an end to bank bailouts and foreclosures and evictions.... Posted Apr 8, 2009

Demonstrators marched through downtown Seattle on April 4 with signs saying “Bail out people, not the banks!”... Posted Apr 8, 2009

Over the last year, the Bush and Obama administrations have committed almost $10 TRILLION to bailing out banks and other financial institutions that finally crashed after years of raking in extravagant profits. There is still no accounting of where all this money has been going. The fact that the government can even think of promising the money sharks the mind-boggling sum of $10 trillion shows how tremendously productive U.S. workers have been—and could be again if jobs were available producing what people need.... Posted Apr 5, 2009

Women’s unemployment rate is rising quickly. ... Posted Apr 5, 2009

Nearly 200 delegates and observers from five U.S. cities packed the UCLA Labor Center on March 29 for the third congress of BAYAN-USA and the founding congress of GABRIELA-USA. ... Posted Apr 5, 2009

A short course on the current economic crisis.... Posted Apr 5, 2009

The Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions has announced plans for a People’s Summit in Detroit June 14-17.... Posted Apr 4, 2009

The prospect of deep budget cuts throughout the University of North Carolina system brought workers, students and faculty members out in Chapel Hill March 26 to rally against layoffs, cuts in student services, and other cuts the university is proposing to make on the backs of workers and students.... Posted Apr 4, 2009

Low-wage workers are vulnerable to wage theft by bosses over and above the “normal” capitalist theft of the vast surplus value created by workers.... Posted Apr 4, 2009

Activists from around the country and especially the Southwest met in San Antonio to participate in the Border Peoples Movement Assembly on March 19-23.... Posted Apr 4, 2009

Fired R.I. workers demand pay * Auto parts workers choose dignity * NYC restaurant owner to eat $3.3 million... Posted Apr 4, 2009

Protesters marched in Melbourne, Fla., on March 28 to demand an end to war and occupation from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to Palestine.... Posted Apr 4, 2009

The latest trillion-dollar handout to Wall Street banks and the recent assault on workers in the auto industry clearly demonstrate why the workers and oppressed in this country must break the chains of capitalist priorities and mobilize to change things around so that workers come before banks and corporations.... Posted Apr 2, 2009

As the economic and financial crisis circles the globe, youth and students are increasingly caught in its net. What is outrageous is that these terrible hardships and the bleak outlook that youth face are inherent to the system we all live under.... Posted Apr 2, 2009

During a jailhouse interview in 1978 a Philadelphia radical awaiting trial for a policeman’s death advanced a salient observation about a fundamental flaw in America’s legal system. The “system just makes and breaks laws as it sees fit!” noted this radical, who for years had battled Philadelphia authorities arbitrarily bending and breaking laws to brutally assault his organization.... Posted Apr 2, 2009

Charles Barron and Chris Silvera say: We will be amongst the many speakers at the “Bail Out People, Not Banks” rally on Wall Street on April 3.... Posted Apr 1, 2009

April 4 marks the 41st anniversary of the martyrdom of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tenn.... Posted Apr 1, 2009

On March 21, Lovelle Mixon, a young Black man, was pulled over by two motorcycle cops in Oakland, Calif. According to the Oakland Police Department, the stop was “routine” and was for a “traffic violation.” Other than that the details of the stop remain shady. But such routine stops involving racial profiling occur frequently in oppressed communities.... Posted Apr 1, 2009

Workers at the Moncure Plywood LLC factory have been on strike since last July 20 for their basic right to a decent job with safe work conditions. In the past eight months, the striking union members have been confronted with the racist hanging of a noose, replacement by permanent strikebreakers, and a virtual media whiteout of their heroic actions.... Posted Apr 1, 2009

There is nothing like the smell of a trillion-dollar bonanza to send the stock market through the roof. Wall Street has struck it rich with the Obama administration’s blatantly pro-banker, pro-investor program to revive the capitalist economy.... Posted Mar 29, 2009

Statement issued by members of the December 12th Movement, who held a press conference on March 21 in Harlem on the U.S. government’s refusal to attend the United Nations World Conference against Racism-Durban Review in April.... Posted Mar 27, 2009

The City of New York threw in the towel and agreed to pay $1.1 million to the families of Anthony Rosario and Hilton Vega. The two young Puerto Rican men were killed, shot 22 times—11 in the back—in the Bronx on Jan. 12, 1995, by police detectives Patrick Brosnan and James Crowe.... Posted Mar 27, 2009



A recent court case in Elgin, Ill., gives the lie to those who profess that women are “better off” in the U.S. than elsewhere in the world. The Rev. Daryl Bujak, a former preacher at the First Missionary Baptist Church in Elgin, was recently convicted of a horrific crime for which he was only given a few hours of community service and a small fine.... Posted Mar 27, 2009



The executives at the Washington office of American International Group are reportedly afraid to go to work for fear of their lives. In New York City, they are told not to wear their ID badges outside the building.... Posted Mar 26, 2009

The Illinois budget is in a shambles, both because of the recession and because lawmakers are never willing to tax the rich. Meanwhile, the city government’s priorities are entirely focused on attracting the 2016 Olympic games, which would mean a bonanza for whichever well-connected land speculators have managed to displace the residents from the parts of the South Side that would be developed for the events.... Posted Mar 26, 2009

From a March 15 speech played at protest rallies marking the sixth anniversary of the U.S. war on Iraq.... Posted Mar 26, 2009

Protests across the country on March 19 and 21 marked the sixth anniversary of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan in varied ways. Clearly the charge that “Occupation is a crime—from Iraq to Palestine” will not stop until the U.S. troops are withdrawn, regardless of the economic crisis or any change in the political administration of the U.S. government.... Posted Mar 25, 2009

Commentary by a member of the Raleigh chapter of the youth group FIST—Fight Imperialism, Stand Together: On March 21, Raleigh FIST traveled to the march in D.C. Eight of us went, driving in a 1980s family van.... Posted Mar 25, 2009

Although President Barack Obama has created mandatory and voluntary directives to mortgage lenders that they negotiate loan modifications with homeowners in default or foreclosure or in jeopardy of either, many have refused to do even what is minimally necessary to stop evicting renters and foreclosing on homeowners.... Posted Mar 25, 2009

March 7 was the 77th anniversary of one of the bloodiest chapters in Detroit labor history: the Ford Hunger March of 1932.... Posted Mar 25, 2009

For millions of workers and oppressed people, there is no time to wait for a stimulus plan to “trickle down” through the economy. For them, survival is hanging in the balance. In cities and towns across the country, the multinational working class is becoming painfully aware of the fact that there is no band-aid solution to this gaping economic wound. That is why workers and activists from across the country are preparing to converge on Wall Street, the nerve center of finance capital, on April 3 in order to directly confront the billionaire bankers and financiers. Demonstrators will demand an immediate moratorium on all foreclosures and evictions, and money for jobs, health care and education, not bank bailouts and war.... Posted Mar 22, 2009

On the sixth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, support is growing for war resisters in the United States and Canada in the wake of new deportations and repression.... Posted Mar 21, 2009

The May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights held a news conference on March 17 at Union Square to announce the upcoming May Day rally in New York City, which has been held there each year since 2005. ... Posted Mar 21, 2009

The debate over ceding local control of Detroit’s Cobo Hall to a five-person authority in exchange for funds to renovate and minimally expand the convention center unleashed a torrent of racist media abuse on the City Council after they rejected the proposal on March 1.... Posted Mar 21, 2009

EFCA introduced in Congress * $1.25 million nurses’ settlement * Singing for royalties * >AT&T Mobility workers negotiate contract * U.S. unions defend labor in Colombia... Posted Mar 21, 2009

Detroit residents will be able to clearly demand the implementation of a Water Affordability Plan if 10,000 signatures are gathered by May 18. ... Posted Mar 21, 2009

With Washington carrying out war, occupation and intervention on expanding fronts, the anti-war movement is more necessary than ever. It is needed by the workers and oppressed people abroad who are the direct targets of the Pentagon and also by the masses of people in the U.S. who will pay for these military operations and have to carry them out.... Posted Mar 19, 2009

International Women’s Day and International Working Women’s Month were celebrated in Detroit on March 14 at a forum hosted by Workers World Party.... Posted Mar 19, 2009

A thoroughly multinational crowd filled the cafeteria of Roxbury Community College on the afternoon of March 14 for an International Women’s Day “Sistah Summit—Women Rise Up” event organized by the Women’s Fightback Network (WFN).... Posted Mar 19, 2009

“Disgusting!” “It’s an outrage!” “They made sure that they got theirs.” These are some of the nicer comments bound to be heard as workers discuss the latest scandal involving corporate misuse of government bailout funds.... Posted Mar 18, 2009

Workers of Stella D’oro, who have been on strike for seven months, were joined on March 11 by community activists and allies in a protest in front of the company’s plant in the Bronx, N.Y.... Posted Mar 18, 2009

At least 60 supporters crowded around Rev. Luis Barrios as he entered the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York March 9 to begin serving a two-month sentence for “trespassing” at the notorious School of the Americas last fall.... Posted Mar 18, 2009

No event is so tragic that U.S. financiers and brokers won’t look for a way to make money from it. It’s a relief when someone exposes them for the vultures they are.... Posted Mar 15, 2009

Millions of homeowners and residents facing foreclosure and eviction are hoping and expecting that the Obama-Treasury plan will afford them relief so they can stay in their homes. However, according to Detroit attorney Jerry Goldberg, who fights foreclosures and evictions on behalf of homeowners and renters, “The plan must be seriously amended in order to be truly effective and not be just another announcement that generates false expectations.... Posted Mar 15, 2009

Albert Woodfox, one of the three political prisoners known as the Angola 3, has been in solitary confinement for 36 years after a politically motivated murder conviction. Supporters, including some from as far as Maine and California, wore black T-shirts that proclaimed “I am Albert Woodfox” and “I am Herman Wallace,” the other member of the Angola 3 who has not been released.... Posted Mar 15, 2009

The health care crisis facing workers in the U.S. is severe. Fifty million people lack health insurance and another 25 million are underinsured.... Posted Mar 14, 2009

The alarming prospect of deep budget and service cutbacks, layoffs and the closing of hospitals and other workplaces brought tens of thousands of workers into the streets near New York’s City Hall March 5 for a monster “Rally for New York.” The gigantic outpouring of throngs of union and community protesters lasted for hours and stretched for blocks and blocks in lower Manhattan.... Posted Mar 14, 2009

Richard Durst, president of Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, claims to have served in Vietnam alongside Bob Kerrey, the  president of New School University. Both went on orders from the U.S. government to repress the Vietnamese people and their resistance. Durst and Kerrey are once again repressing justified resistance—this time from students at the institutions of higher education they have directed.... Posted Mar 14, 2009

Resistance is the byproduct of oppression. With the first inkling of exploitation and oppression come the seeds of struggle to throw off those who would exploit and oppress.... Posted Mar 14, 2009

There’s been a backlash to the comments by newly appointed U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in his Feb. 18 speech on U.S. race relations. Holder, the first African American to hold this top position, stated that “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been, and we, I believe, continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.”... Posted Mar 14, 2009

The loss of 651,000 more jobs in February and the jump in the official unemployment rate to 8.1 percent have produced important admissions in the capitalist press that every worker should pay close attention to.... Posted Mar 12, 2009

The U.S. Supreme Court got a glimpse of the strong support for Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Cuban Five--Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández, René González and Ramón Labañino--when friend-of-the-court legal documents were filed March 5 and 6 on behalf of these six internationally known political prisoners.... Posted Mar 12, 2009

Several thousand protesters gathered in front of San Francisco City Hall March 5 as the marriage rights struggle made its way to the California Supreme Court.... Posted Mar 12, 2009

For the second year in a row, the International Women’s Day Philadelphia Coalition has brought together women from diverse communities, cultures and struggles. This year’s event included strong participation from Latina, Asian and Black women, as well as many activists from Philadelphia’s LGBT community. With the growing economic crisis hitting women the hardest, many speakers addressed social and economic justice issues, including the mortgage crisis, health care reform and the struggle to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.... Posted Mar 11, 2009

Hundreds of women, along with male supporters, rallied at New York’s Union Square and then marched together on March 8 to commemorate International Women’s Day. They called for “a bailout of women and our communities,” not the banks, in the U.S. and worldwide.... Posted Mar 11, 2009

Emotions ran high as four women, dressed in drab green prison clothes, entered a conference room at the Etowah County Detention Center in northern Alabama on March 7 to the cheers and applause of a group of immigrant rights activists, legal workers and family members... Posted Mar 11, 2009

Local Mexicana/Chicana women gave a strong working-class and combat-ready tone to the International Women’s Day March in San Antonio. The march challenged the city’s new rule making marches illegal.... Posted Mar 11, 2009

Texas activists carrying colorful signs and banners formed a loud, militant demonstration in front of the T. Don Hutto Residential Facility on March 7, chanting, “CCA [Corrections Corporation of America], shut it down!” “Free the children, shut it down!” and “ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], shut it down!”... Posted Mar 11, 2009

The Solidarity Center hosted a meeting and reception on March 4 to welcome two revolutionary women who traveled to New York City from socialist Cuba to participate in International Working Women’s Month activities at the United Nations.... Posted Mar 11, 2009

The racist, sexist subprime mortgage industry and the crisis it created has especially affected women and their families, so it is no surprise that women are active in the forefront of struggles around the country to stop foreclosures and evictions.... Posted Mar 8, 2009

Palestinian-American activist Sahar Abusada returned home and was greeted by a welcoming crowd at the airport in Houston Feb. 28. Abusada had raised money in Houston to buy 140 large tents and 280 blankets for families in Gaza who are homeless due to the recent Israeli bombing.... Posted Mar 8, 2009

When a Harvard University dining hall manager called two women workers “lesbians” in an attempt to intimidate and insult them, the response from the workers, their union and students was to mount a fightback.... Posted Mar 8, 2009

Friends of the Cuban Revolution rallied in front of the Cuban Mission to the United Nations March 1 to counter a simultaneous rally of right-wing Cuban exiles.... Posted Mar 8, 2009

The announcement that the U.S. government plans to keep an occupation force of up to 50,000 troops–plus countless civilian mercenaries–in Iraq indefinitely as well as immediately send an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan has met a firestorm of protest and opposition.... Posted Mar 8, 2009

The Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions voted unanimously on Feb. 28 to call a People’s Summit in Detroit from June 14-17. Organizers will begin widespread outreach to garner endorsers and draw other organizations into building for the June activities. These actions will include a march along Woodward Avenue for jobs and housing and a tent city in Grand Circus Park of the foreclosed-upon, jobless, underpaid, homeless and all who struggle for social and economic justice.... Posted Mar 7, 2009

Ford workers are voting by March 9 on whether to go along with the contract revision, which also cuts pay, break time, holidays, and Supplemental Unemployment Benefits, and further endangers retiree health benefits. It’s assumed that UAW members at Chrysler and General Motors will be asked to approve the same deal. They might as well be voting with a loaded gun to their heads, considering the number of bankers, politicians, and so-called “economists” and “analysts” who are demanding union-busting-by-bankruptcy.... Posted Mar 7, 2009

* Tomato pickers to march on Tallahassee * Grocery workers get their $1.5 million * SAG rejects ‘last, best, final offer’ * Hotel workers demand pay * Calif. caregivers sign first contract *... Posted Mar 7, 2009

An interview with Electrical Workers union (UE) Local 1110 President Armando Robles, conducted in Cleveland by Martha Grevatt. Robles was a leader of the successful worker occupation of Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago in December.... Posted Mar 7, 2009

Workers and communities throughout the U.S. already facing record unemployment are now being pressed to bear the brunt of state and local budget shortfall “solutions.” However, resistance is bubbling up as workers push back with demands for foreclosure and eviction moratoriums, house take-backs, labor union civil disobedience, marches and non-cooperation.... Posted Mar 5, 2009

Many thousands of people—young and old, Black, white and Latina/o—packed downtown Phoenix on Feb. 28 for an all-day rally and march protesting the racist actions of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.... Posted Mar 5, 2009

For years now, banks, investment houses and brokerage firms have engaged in a feverish dance of hustling from homeowners... Posted Mar 5, 2009

The 81st Academy Awards show on Feb. 22 opened with its typical pomp and circumstance despite the current recession. Oscar night, however, was an interesting cultural study of class and national oppression—both for what the awards show recognized and for what it overlooked.... Posted Mar 5, 2009

There’s a lot of talk and confusion about Main Street versus Wall Street these days. But there was no confusion on Feb. 28 at the Boston fight-back conference about what side people need to be on. ... Posted Mar 5, 2009

Subway-fare activist Stephen Millies created a stir—and got arrested and charged with disorderly conduct—when he reached for his shoe at a December hearing to protest what he and many others considered outrageous New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority fare hikes. On Feb. 23 Millies had a victory in court when the judge threw out the case against him.... Posted Mar 5, 2009

The budget is looking to bring about a recovery for the capitalist class. It expects an increase in production and in profits, but leaves the working class with massive unemployment, which is especially severe in the Black, Latin/o, Asian and Native communities. ... Posted Mar 4, 2009

March 8, International Women’s Day, is not only an important time to reflect on women’s resistance to all forms of injustice and oppression from the past, but also to help inspire a fightback for the important struggles that lie ahead. And inspiration is needed now more than ever as women bear a significant burden with the deepening capitalist economic crisis.... Posted Mar 4, 2009

Robert Robideau, a member of the American Indian Movement since 1973, died Feb. 17 at his home in Barcelona, Spain, where he was the founder and director of the American Indian Movement Museum.... Posted Mar 4, 2009

It is becoming clearer every day that the capitalist class has no solution to the present crisis, either short term or long term. The short-term stimulus will not work and the long-term forces that have in the past pushed capitalism forward are exhausted. It is clear from this that the multinational working class, through independent mass action, is the only force that can intervene to stop the layoffs, foreclosures and evictions and that the workers must do so in order to save themselves from being driven deeper into poverty.... Posted Mar 2, 2009

The crash of a turboprop commuter plane near Buffalo, N.Y., on Feb. 12 killed all 49 people on board and one on the ground. The plane, operated by Pinnacle Airlines for Continental Airlines, went down while approaching the Buffalo airport in icy conditions. All sources immediately suggested that icing played a role in the crash.... Posted Mar 2, 2009

Barack Obama is the first African-American president in the U.S. However, the more things change, the more they remain the same, for there is another dimension of Black history we need to be aware of.... Posted Mar 2, 2009

The UAW last week reached a tentative agreement on new wage and benefit concessions. If news reports are correct, workers will be asked to give up cost-of-living-allowance raises and annual bonuses, work more than eight hours a day for straight time, and lose all income security after two years of layoff. This is a precedent-setting rollback of 70 years’ worth of hard-fought gains. The fact is that concessions have never saved jobs.... Posted Feb 28, 2009

In addition to planning cutbacks in city social programs for the elderly, disabled and children, and layoffs of city workers and decreases in their benefits, now New York Mayor Bloomberg refuses to expand food stamp eligibility, even though the newly enacted federal “stimulus package” would fund it.... Posted Feb 28, 2009

On Feb. 18, New York University students, along with students from other colleges and universities throughout the metropolitan area, began occupying the cafeteria in the Kimmel Center on NYU’s campus.... Posted Feb 28, 2009

While some parents got some good news on Feb. 11, most of the over 800 parents and children who attended the school closure meeting of the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) did not. The school board voted to close four schools this year and four schools next year. Parents, teachers and students are outraged.... Posted Feb 28, 2009

On Jan. 26, Fr. Luis Barrios declared the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation guilty of training in murder and torture to advance U.S. imperialism’s interests in Latin America. At the same time, the U.S. District Court sentenced him to serve two months in federal prison for walking onto the grounds of Fort Benning, home of Whinsec, better known by its former name, School of the Americas.... Posted Feb 26, 2009

The racist forces and the business establishment of Boston have never given up the goal of returning to racist, resegregated “neighborhood” schools where all the resources are reserved for the white neighborhoods.... Posted Feb 26, 2009

Ron Wilburn, the FBI’s “cooperating witness” in their case against Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner and former Massachusetts state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, told the Boston Globe he was used and duped by the FBI—not to expose corruption in the Massachusetts political establishment, but to bring down two prominent progressive Black elected officials.... Posted Feb 26, 2009

As the staggering bank losses continue to mount, representatives of the U.S. ruling class are coming to the forced realization that many of the largest financial institutions in the U.S. are insolvent.... Posted Feb 26, 2009



The New York Post created a firestorm of righteous anger and spontaneous protest when it printed a horrific, racist cartoon Feb. 18 depicting President Barack Obama as a chimpanzee being shot to death by two white policemen. Many see the cartoon as advocating the assassination of the President.... Posted Feb 25, 2009

Thousands of workers, youth, religious leaders and civil rights activists marched through the streets of downtown Raleigh, N.C., on Feb. 14 in the third annual “Historic Thousands on Jones Street” (HKonJ) march.... Posted Feb 25, 2009

Marxists cannot ignore the fact that under capitalism, anti-drug wars are police measures meant to intimidate the working class. The steroid issue is just the sports version of the drug wars that have jailed so many poor people.... Posted Feb 25, 2009

The Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions has launched a struggle to keep Anthony King in his home.... Posted Feb 25, 2009

The Bail Out the People Movement is calling for a march on Wall Street on April 3 and 4.... Posted Feb 23, 2009

On Feb. 7, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) won a significant victory at Hampshire College in Massachusetts when the administration announced it would divest from six companies that directly profit from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.... Posted Feb 23, 2009

Several hundred people gathered in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s historic union hall Feb. 14 for a Black History Month rally, entitled “Racism, Repression and Rebellion: The Lessons of Labor Defense,” in San Francisco.... Posted Feb 22, 2009

At the packed  International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 58 union hall in Detroit Feb. 9, a multinational crowd witnessed history as Armando Robles, president of Electrical Workers union (UE) Local 1110, and Bob Kingsley, UE director of organizing, presented a “Sit-Down Pioneer” award to two Flint sit-down strikers of 1936-1937, Geraldine Blankenship of the Women’s Emergency Brigade and Olen Ham.... Posted Feb 22, 2009

On Feb. 10 Cleveland trade unionists, students and community activists filled the Teamsters Local 407 hall to hear about the heroic sit-down at Republic Windows and Doors Factory this past December.... Posted Feb 22, 2009

There was an air of excitement and anticipation as dozens of people decorated a flatbed truck and assorted other vehicles in preparation for the “demonstration on wheels” which would take about 200 people from across Georgia to the gold-domed state Capitol.... Posted Feb 22, 2009

* Workers march for jobs in Illinois * Contract won after 6-month teachers’ struggle * Talks extended for refinery workers * Labor ‘rat’ is ruled free speech * LGBT coalition supports passage of EFCA * S.F. labor groups demand Gaza relief... Posted Feb 22, 2009

A case of judicial corruption in Pennsylvania has once again exposed the true nature of the profit-driven prison industrial complex and the warehousing of poor youth.... Posted Feb 19, 2009

Immigrant prisoners at the Reeves County Detention Center, a private prison in Pecos, Texas, took over the prison on Jan. 31 after they attempted to meet with prison officials regarding a seriously ill detainee being held in solitary confinement. When their demand that this prisoner be immediately taken to a hospital was ignored, a spontaneous rebellion began.... Posted Feb 19, 2009

Hundreds of Philadelphia drug convictions could be overturned, and pending cases dropped, because of police falsification of evidence against people they accused of dealing drugs.... Posted Feb 19, 2009

The inherent violence of the capitalist system has been demonstrated time and again throughout history. It is not necessary to peruse a history book, but simply to pick up a newspaper, walk outside or observe everyday relations. Putting profit before need is violent and as established before, class society produces struggle of the opposing classes, from whence violence inevitably arises.... Posted Feb 19, 2009

As the crisis deepens in the United States, the multinational working class, unions, community organizations, students and youth must not be lulled into inactivity waiting for the $787 billion stimulus package, signed on Feb. 17, to take effect.... Posted Feb 18, 2009

Excerpts are from talks presented at a Feb. 8 “Zimbabwe: Pan Africanism or Imperialism” forum in Harlem, N.Y. The forum was organized by the December 12th Movement and Friends of Zimbabwe.... Posted Feb 18, 2009

The New York branch of Workers World Party will hold its annual Black History Month forum, featuring Omowale Clay, a leader of the December 12th Movement and Friends of Zimbabwe... Posted Feb 18, 2009

Activists from around New England will gather Feb. 28 at the union hall of the Boston School Bus Drivers, United Steelworkers Local 8751, for a conference on the economic crisis and how to fight back.... Posted Feb 18, 2009

Two million Bolivians voted in the Jan. 25 national referendum, with some 1.3 million of the 2 million voters—almost 62 percent—voting to approve the new constitution. ... Posted Feb 16, 2009

Any serious attempt to delve into the nature of violence—where it comes from and its uses—has to analyze it from a class perspective, taking into account the most oppressed among the working class.... Posted Feb 16, 2009

February is designated as Black History Month in the U.S. It is also celebrated in many other countries in the African Diaspora.... Posted Feb 16, 2009



In collaboration with the International Action Center, City Councilor Chuck Turner has launched a new phase of his “Campaign for Truth, Light and Justice,” focusing national and international attention not just on frame-up charges against Turner but also on eight years of corrupt practices by the Bush administration’s Department of “Justice.”... Posted Feb 14, 2009

For 37 years no one was able to see “FTA,” a riveting documentary of the anti-war show that Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and others performed for GIs during the Vietnam War. The film was yanked from theaters one week after it opened in 1972, and all copies were destroyed. However, the original negatives were discovered a few years ago, and a reprint of the movie is now being released on DVD.... Posted Feb 14, 2009

The Treasury Secretary will soon announce plans for the federal government to essentially take over the failed mortgage industry.... Posted Feb 14, 2009

This letter arrived in response to the article, “Welfare vanishes as poverty soars,” published in the Feb. 12 issue of Workers World.... Posted Feb 14, 2009

For over two years organizers have been fighting for a moratorium to halt the widespread foreclosure crisis engulfing every part of Michigan. Gov. Granholm has rejected demands that she declare a state of economic emergency and impose a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions.Instead, huge budget cuts and layoffs are on the horizon.... Posted Feb 12, 2009

Because of her record of hostility to immigrants, Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand’s appointment to replace Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in the U.S. Senate has drawn opposition.... Posted Feb 12, 2009

A coalition of community activists interrupted a Feb. 3 conference of New York’s corporate elite, demanding that the needs of poor and working-class New Yorkers come before the wishes of Wall Street’s power brokers.... Posted Feb 12, 2009

The official unemployment number has jumped from 7.2 percent to 7.6 percent. But this is not the total unemployment number, which includes those who have stopped looking for work and those working part time because they cannot find full-time work. That has jumped from 13.5 percent to 13.9 percent. In effect, this means that to achieve full employment for the approximately 154 million people in the workforce, some 21.4 million new full-time jobs would be needed now—and this number is growing rapidly each month.... Posted Feb 11, 2009

On Feb. 4, thousands of workers delivered boxes of signed cards supporting the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) to Congress in Washington, D.C. The cards represent more than 1.5 million signers from every U.S. state. On Feb. 5, workers in California marched 10 miles in the rain from downtown Los Angeles to the Westwood Federal Building dramatically demanding passage of the EFCA.... Posted Feb 11, 2009

“Milk” is a rare film for, from the viewpoint of partisans for LGBT liberation, it deserves the acclaim it’s received. Although it is ostensibly about the title character, this is really a movie about something much bigger than one person.... Posted Feb 11, 2009

When the House version of the $819-billion economic stimulus plan passed on Jan. 28, one important section was missing. It pertained to expansion of health care services for low-income women.... Posted Feb 8, 2009

Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans announced Feb. 2 that his office will immediately suspend all sales on foreclosed homes in the county.... Posted Feb 8, 2009

Thousands of outraged transit riders and transit workers across the greater New York area are saying that the Metropolitan Transit Authority and its proposed fare hikes and service cuts are posing direct threats to public safety on the transit system.... Posted Feb 8, 2009

An elderly widower died an excruciating death from hypothermia in Bay City, Mich., a small city 100 miles north of Detroit. Marvin E. Schur, age 93, froze to death in his own home after the city’s power company installed a “limiting device,” which shuts off electricity when it reaches a minimal usage level.... Posted Feb 8, 2009

On Jan. 28 over 2,000 students from Arizona’s three state universities descended on the state Capitol building in Phoenix to protest the legislature’s proposal to slash university funding by over $140 million.... Posted Feb 8, 2009

Months of community organizing to stop the closing of 11 branch libraries ended in a victory on Jan. 28 when Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter announced all libraries would remain open through June 30.... Posted Feb 8, 2009

The heroic six-day factory occupation this past December by the Republic Windows and Doors workers in Chicago continues to resonate among labor activists and progressive forces throughout the United States.... Posted Feb 8, 2009

A rally in the lobby rotunda of the Rhode Island State House on Jan. 19 called for an end to foreclosures, evictions, utility shutoffs and layoffs, and for funding human needs—not budget cuts.... Posted Feb 8, 2009

The Pentagon reported in January that “Suicides among soldiers rose for the fourth straight year, exceeding the rate for civilians for the first time in decades.” Despite this admission, the Pentagon was downplaying the suicide story.... Posted Feb 8, 2009

* Most union growth in 25 years * Obama signs pay equity bill * Republic workers’ victory tour * Health-care workers organize in Mass. * SAG resumes negotiations... Posted Feb 8, 2009

Like you, I’ve seen the searing phone-camera tape of the killing of 22-year-old Oscar Grant of Oakland, Calif.... Posted Feb 5, 2009

Solidarity! Some 500 supporters of striking bakery workers marched Jan. 31 from their struck plant to a major shopping center in the South Bronx. The workers have been out since last August.... Posted Feb 5, 2009

As millions are being thrown out of their homes and losing their jobs, state governments are reducing the meager assistance available to the poor and unemployed.... Posted Feb 4, 2009

From a Jan. 31 statement by imprisoned Native leader Leonard Peltier on his return to Lewisburg prison from Canaan, where he had been brutally beaten.... Posted Feb 4, 2009

The Illinois State Senate voted unanimously on Jan. 29 to throw Gov. Rod Blagojevich out of office. Compared to Dick Cheney’s record, what Blagojevich is accused of amounts to peanuts. But Congress refused to touch Cheney or his fellow war criminal George W. Bush.... Posted Feb 4, 2009

The struggle to free the Cuban Five entered a new stage Jan. 30 when the defense team filed a formal request—a petition for a writ of certiorari—asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decisions of lower courts that have caused these five Cuban antiterrorist heroes to be imprisoned in the United States since 1998.... Posted Feb 4, 2009

Large U.S. companies publicly announced more than 170,000 layoffs in the first four weeks of this year, but hundreds of thousands more are expected to be added when the government releases its monthly statistics early in February. The capitalist government in Washington has not been trying to solve the banks’ problem of insolvency by rushing to the aid of the millions of workers who are defaulting on their debts and losing their homes and jobs. Instead, it has put limited aid to the workers on the slow track while it rushes to find ways to bolster the banks.... Posted Feb 1, 2009

Organizers with the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions are gearing up for a Feb. 3 demonstration at the state Capitol in Lansing, Mich., when Gov. Jennifer Granholm delivers her annual State of the State address. Activists continue to demand that the governor declare a state of economic emergency in Michigan and take executive measures to give immediate relief to the people, including imposition of a two-year moratorium on foreclosures and evictions.... Posted Feb 1, 2009

Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans has sent a letter to Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm requesting she declare a state of economic emergency in the county and a six-month moratorium on foreclosures.... Posted Feb 1, 2009

From remarks made by Wayne Curtis, a local artist and former Black Panther Party member, at Detroit’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day event. Curtis’ work was presented to Rubie Curl-Pinkins, recipient of the 2009 award, who successfully fought eviction from her home in July.... Posted Feb 1, 2009

The auto workers can provide ample proof of managerial ineptitude, and can easily demonstrate their capacity to run a “viable” company. It’s time the union leadership advance the slogan of workers’ control. Let the government forget about bailing out the bosses—give the money to the workers with no strings attached.... Posted Jan 31, 2009

When Boston Mayor Thomas Menino called for a wage freeze his target was not the highest paid middle managers at city hall. His target even went beyond the city workers. Menino also directed his frigid message at some of the most militant representatives of private-sector workers in the city.... Posted Jan 31, 2009

President Barack Obama on Jan. 23 rescinded what is known as “the global gag rule.” This policy, instituted by former President George W. Bush on his first day in office in 2001, has had severely detrimental effects on millions of women worldwide.... Posted Jan 31, 2009

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is once again being resurrected this time of year, in part because of his birthday, but also, of course, because of the swearing-in of Barack H. Obama.... Posted Jan 30, 2009

When Leonard Peltier arrived at Canaan Federal Prison in Pennsylvania after being transferred from another facility in the state, he was brutally assaulted by a group of inmates. A letter from Peltier’s sister, Betty Peltier-Solano, says he suffered numerous head blows and “blood was everywhere.” She also said one of his fingers has been broken. He has been put in solitary confinement.... Posted Jan 29, 2009



Michael McGee has been in jail since May 31, 2007. During his time in elected office, McGee engaged in many progressive actions including fighting police brutality.... Posted Jan 29, 2009

Huey P. Newton’s name, and more importantly, his history of resistance and struggle, are little more than a mystery for many younger people in their 20s.... Posted Jan 29, 2009

The unfolding capitalist economic crisis is now hitting state budgets like an avalanche. The state of California, which alone boasts the world’s eighth-biggest economy, is a case in point. Despite its tremendous productive capacity in agriculture, mineral extraction, manufacturing, fisheries, tourism and more, and its abundant pool of skilled workers, politicians here are crying poverty.... Posted Jan 28, 2009

Following on the heels of a highly successful Fightback Conference that took place in New York City on Jan. 17, the Bail Out the People Movement’s call for a West Coast meeting on Jan. 24 drew activists to the Service Employees Local 721 union hall in Los Angeles.... Posted Jan 28, 2009

A report issued Jan. 13 by Kids Count in Michigan said: “Michigan’s continuing economic woes are spilling over into the lives of the state’s youngest residents with nearly one out of every four young children (under age 5) living in poverty... Posted Jan 23, 2009

A commentary from political prisoner Bomani Shakur: History could not have created a more poignant scene. In the midst of what may be the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression in a country known for its racial injustice, the United States elected its first Black president.... Posted Jan 23, 2009

Wet snow flurries greeted a seasoned band of heroic Stella D’oro production workers who stood shoulder to shoulder with their community supporters on the picket line. ... Posted Jan 23, 2009

Outrage has been the public response to projected New York City subway fare hikes. Despite the corporate media trying to make it seem like the hikes are inevitable, anger has been growing.... Posted Jan 23, 2009

House passes two pay-equity bills * ILWU supports Cuban Five * Sign petition supporting EFCA * Wal-Mart to pay $352-$640 million over wage violations * Proud day for union labor!... Posted Jan 23, 2009

Activists attended the first of a number of mini-conferences to discuss and strategize around a united fightback program of action to challenge the deepening economic crisis, especially inside the U.S.... Posted Jan 22, 2009

Excerpts from a Bail Out the People Movement draft document adopted at the Jan. 17 Fightback Conference in NYC.... Posted Jan 22, 2009

Message to Bail Out the People conference: The members of UE Local 1110, workers from Republic Windows and Doors, stand with you in demanding a people’s bailout.... Posted Jan 22, 2009

BULLETIN URGENT! Leonard Peltier’s Safety in Jeopardy! Peltier was severely beaten upon his arrival at the Canaan Federal Penitentiary. Call and request Leonard Peltier be treated with dignity and respect. Canaan Federal Prison 570-488-8000. Peltier’s register number (prison ID) is: 89637-132.... Posted Jan 22, 2009

In Atlanta, the annual Martin Luther King Day march, which highlights the role of unions, community organizations, churches and progressive groups, filled Atlanta’s major thoroughfare, Peachtree Street. Some of the signs read “End the War in Iraq? Yes, We Can!” “Justice for Troy Davis!” and “Bail Out the People!” The most numerous and loudest contingent was that of Palestinians and other opponents of the U.S.-backed Israeli massacre in Gaza.... Posted Jan 21, 2009

In this important year of commemoration of the 80th birthday of the late civil rights and anti-war martyr, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the ascendancy of the country’s first African-American president, the U.S. is experiencing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.... Posted Jan 18, 2009

Autoworkers have more than enough reasons to be concerned about their economic future.... Posted Jan 18, 2009

In the first week of January, as the number of workers filing new claims reached a 26-year high and the U.S. unemployment rate climbed to 7.2 percent, the job center computer systems in New York, North Carolina and Ohio crashed.... Posted Jan 18, 2009

The current surge in GI resistance, as reported in earlier articles in Workers World, has begun to stimulate calls for a sanctuary movement.... Posted Jan 18, 2009

In the early morning of the first day of the new year, as celebrations around the country were waning and millions were clinging to a hope of change coming soon with the first African-American president, the police of Bay Area Rapid Transit demonstrated the brutality of the capitalist state in Oakland, Calif.... Posted Jan 16, 2009

The Network to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions rallied outside Baltimore City Hall to call on Mayor Sheila Dixon and the City Council to make the city a “foreclosure-and-eviction-free zone.”... Posted Jan 16, 2009

On Jan. 6 Standard and Poor’s triggered a financial emergency in Detroit by lowering the city’s rating to “junk bond” status.... Posted Jan 16, 2009

Activists with the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions are stepping up their struggle for a moratorium on foreclosures, evictions, utility shutoffs and plant closings.... Posted Jan 16, 2009

The intensifying capitalist crisis, which is bringing greater and greater suffering daily, is leaving the workers and the oppressed with no alternative but to organize a fightback. The deadly waves of unemployment, foreclosures, homelessness, hunger and repression are spreading while the ruling-class politicians and experts debate over the terms of the so-called “stimulus package.”... Posted Jan 15, 2009

The Chippewa Valley, once called “Wisconsin’s Silicon Valley,” has just been hit by the termination of more than 1,000 factory jobs at SGI, Hutchinson Technology and other computer parts manufacturers.... Posted Jan 15, 2009

Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion as a woman’s right, will be 36 years old on Jan. 22.... Posted Jan 15, 2009

Protests, vigils and mass marches are continuing throughout the U.S. against Israel’s vicious assault on Gaza.... Posted Jan 14, 2009

For 60 years, Israel has persecuted the Palestinian people with impunity in defiance of United Nations General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, orders of the International Court of Justice, international law and fundamental human rights.... Posted Jan 11, 2009

“We, Black people in the United States, condemn the criminal Israeli attacks on the people of Gaza. These war crimes are being conducted with the overt material and unapologetic political backing of the U.S. government.”... Posted Jan 11, 2009

General Motors and Chrysler LLC began the New Year by depositing the first installments of a federal government loan in the bank. Meanwhile, all but a small fraction of Chrysler’s workers will spend the first month of the year laid off. GM workers will be unemployed at least part of the first quarter. None of them will see an improvement in their situation due to the bailout.... Posted Jan 10, 2009

What has three heads, drops bombs and destroys jobs? Cerberus, the three-headed guard-dog of Greek mythology, is the name and mascot of the Wall Street hedge fund that owns Chrysler LLC.... Posted Jan 10, 2009

Labor groups condemn Israeli attacks on Gaza - Will actors vote to strike? - Starbucks violates labor laws - Subway signs with CIW... Posted Jan 10, 2009



A police raid on the Superfly Barber Shop in Cleveland took place on Dec. 24. The shop is owned by Art McKoy, a long-time anti-drug and anti-police-brutality activist.... Posted Jan 8, 2009



Jan. 5—Attention customarily turns away from news of the world during a holiday week when U.S. schools, organizations and workplaces close. But even so, outraged demonstrations to stop the U.S./Israeli bombing of Gaza flared in every major U.S. metropolitan area more than once and in some cases, daily. [Includes slideshow of protests across the country.]... Posted Jan 7, 2009

In an investigative article released this week, a reporter who spent a year and a half in New Orleans connects the dots on reports that have circulated ever since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 showing that Black people were dying from indiscriminate shootings as well as from drowning after Katrina.... Posted Dec 22, 2008



Students at The New School in New York City formed the New School Radical Student Union and occupied the dining hall of a New School building on Dec. 17, demanding more accessible and democratic education.... Posted Dec 22, 2008





Transit riders in Buffalo have a right to feel excited about their efforts to stop a two-phased, 50-cent rate hike—25 cents now and another 25 cents in six months.... Posted Dec 22, 2008

Gov. David Paterson has announced his proposed New York State budget for fiscal year 2009-2010, which begins July 1. Among the list of regressive tax hikes and devastating cuts to almost every state service, from education to health care, is yet another proposed cut to the state’s paltry indigent legal services budget.... Posted Dec 22, 2008











Excerpts from a talk given by Sharon Black at the Nov. 15-16 WWP National Conference.
...
Posted Dec 22, 2008







The statements of war resisters Benji Lewis and Robin Long are strong examples of the current surge in GI resistance and the emerging struggles for amnesty and sanctuary.... Posted Dec 22, 2008




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