Raising Minimum Wage Lowers Unemployment
A new study from UC Berkeley economists dismantles the lie often told by the bosses that raising the minimum wage would lead to job losses. The study was done through the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) and examined 47 different counties, mostly in New York and California, to analyze the effects of […]
Flash Floods Will Be Worse Than Previously Predicted
Billions of dollars of federal infrastructure money could be wasted on projects that won’t be resilient enough in the face of the climate crisis. A report released by a climate nonprofit, First Street, details that the models engineers are using to predict future rainfall are outdated. First Street analyzed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration […]
Peru – How Many More Have to Die?
Peruvian President Boluarte has indicated the intent to use more violence against protestors.
Climate Crisis is Threatening Hot Sauce!
The hot sauce that everyone loves, Sriracha, is disappearing off the shelves and at restaurants, and is even being stolen from the few stores that still have some bottles left. What’s goin on? Temperatures have been soaring because of the climate crisis, with each new decade shattering the temperature records of the previous one. This […]
Media Ignores the Death of 700 Migrants
Last week, the news wouldn’t stop about the five super-wealthy passengers of the Titan — the underwater sea vessel built by a billionaire to travel down to the wreckage of the Titanic. It is now believed the Titan quickly imploded from the pressure of the deep waters, killing the five on board. Also last week, […]
Summer Has Arrived — But Where’s the Time Off?
The summer months should be a time to spend with our families, visit relatives in other cities, see new places, and simply hang out and get some rest. But for many workers, any extra time for family or relaxation has to be squeezed into our schedules before we have to clock back in to work. […]
The Homestead Strike of 1892: The State Shows Whose Side It’s On
On June 25, 1892, the management of the Carnegie Steel Works in Homestead, Pennsylvania, posted notices that the men working at the works could no longer work there if they were part of a union, and that each man would have to negotiate individually with management in order to retain their job. Three days later, […]
Obama’s “Working” on Netflix: Why Now?
Former President Barack Obama stars in a recent 4-part Netflix miniseries called Working: What We Do All Day. He tells us in the first episode that it was inspired by the oral history Working, by Studs Terkel, first published in 1974, in which Terkel interviewed dozens of workers about the jobs they did and how they […]
The Oakland A’s Reverse Boycott: Sell The Team!
Recently, the billionaire owner of the Oakland A’s baseball team has made headlines after signing a deal to abandon Oakland for Las Vegas. The Oakland A’s have been in the city since 1968, in their current stadium at the Oakland Coliseum. Working class families have been connected to this team for multiple generations. And this […]
Overtime = Saving Kaiser $$
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. If you work at Kaiser, you’ve felt the pressure to work overtime, especially as we enter the summer months. You may feel the coercion from management, who calls on everybody to “contribute,” or the insistence may […]
Mini rooms, 22.4, and electric vehicles: What’s going on in the labor movement today?
This is a repost of an article written by Adam Shils for the International Socialism Project posted on June 19, 2023. The labor movement is back in the news. The Screen Writers strike has gained wide publicity as A-list actors support the picket lines. Starbucks workers appear to unionize a new store every day. High […]
Shipwreck in Greece: The Dead are at Sea but the Murderers are at the Helm of the European States
600 migrants were murdered at sea by the policies of European governments.
Juneteenth: la lucha en curso por la liberación negra
El 19 de junio, conocido como Juneteenth, es el reconocimiento del último día de la esclavitud en los EE. UU. Fue celebrado por primera vez por personas anteriormente esclavizadas en Texas un año después de que las tropas del norte derrotaron a las fuerzas a favor de la esclavitud allí. Esto fue dos meses después […]
Student Loan Freeze Ends
People will soon be required to begin payments on student debt that they can’t afford.
Several youth sue Montana government for ties to fossil fuel companies
This week a lawsuit against the state of Montana was filed by 16 young people against the state’s support of the fossil fuel industry. The young people are suing the state, claiming that the government must uphold their right to “maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment … for present and future generations,” which is […]
Juneteenth – The Ongoing Struggle for Black Liberation
June 19th, known as Juneteenth, is the recognition of the last day of chattel slavery in the U.S. It was first celebrated by formerly enslaved people in Texas the year after Northern troops defeated pro-slavery forces there. This was two months after the end of the Civil War. It was the last battle against slavery […]
New Hires
The following is reprinted from Speak Out Now’s workplace newsletter at Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). Classes of new hires have been graduating and joining the ranks. Of course there are some generational differences, there always are. But the question in every workplace is, who will provide support and orientation toward the day-to-day work? That’s up […]
Daniel Ellsberg, Longtime Activist and Whistleblower, has died at 92
It’s with great sorrow that we have heard about the death of Daniel Ellsberg. In his early life, he was drawn into the idea that the U.S. government stood for what it claims — freedom, democracy etc. As a researcher for the U.S. empire, he was exposed to the systematic lying of decades of administrations, […]
UPS Workers Vote to Authorize a Strike
The contract between the Teamsters Union (IBT) and UPS expires July 31. UPS workers have been voting for the last ten days to authorize the union leaders to call a strike if no tentative agreement is reached by July 31. According to the union, the strike vote was approved by 97 percent of those who […]
Insurance Companies Leave California, Citing Wildfires
Allstate and State Farm have announced that they are no longer selling new home insurance policies in California. This comes after an increase in destructive wildfires. The corporations had previously proposed increasing insurance premiums – even in areas of low wildfire risk – but were not allowed to do so by the state insurance commissioner, […]
As Smoke Covers East Coast Skies We Can’t Escape Climate Change
On Tuesday, June 6, the afternoon air in the New York City metro area was hazy with a slight smell of burning. On Wednesday, June 7, as the day wore on, that haze and smell became an ominous blanket that darkened the sky, then turned it a bright orange, and became noticeable in the eyes, […]
U.S Troops in Peru – Reinforcing the Government Against the People
This June, the U.S. government began sending troops to the South American country of Peru to reinforce the government and train the armed forces. The Peruvian government, with a 6% approval rating, has faced months of major mobilizations, with another massive protest planned for July 19. The government of Dina Boularte came to power in […]
France: Attack in Annecy – Anti-immigrant Demagoguery as a Weapon of Mass Division
June 12, 2023 editorial of the Workplace Newsletters of the Etincelle fraction of the New Anticapitalist Party, translated from French. Politicians, from the Macronists (supporters of President Macron), to the Zemmourists (supporters of far-right politician Éric Zemmour), to Les Républicains (LR: liberal conservative party) and the National Rally (RN: far right party), haven’t hesitated to […]
West Oakland Pollution
For decades, West Oakland has been subject to extreme pollution from freeways, the Port of Oakland, and diesel trucks idling in the neighborhood. As a result, West Oakland residents, mostly Black and Brown workers and their families, visit the emergency room for asthma at rates 85 percent higher than the county average. Deaths from heart […]
Supreme Court vs. Teamsters: Intensifying Attacks Against Workers and Unions
The Supreme Court just made it harder for unions to strike with its decision on June 1 in a case brought by Glacier Northwest – a Seattle concrete company – against a local Teamsters union and some of its members. The decision was 8-1 for the company. The ruling expanded the power of a corporation to […]
Artificial Intelligence – A Danger to Humanity, Harnessed to Capitalism’s Greed
Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) has been in the headlines regularly in the last months. Many leading scientists and corporate officials in high tech industries have made statements regarding the dangers it poses. For example, Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, a computer scientist seen as the godfather of A.I., announced his retirement from Google, saying he regrets his work […]
Attack on Dissent: Members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund Charged with Terrorism?
On May 31, a SWAT team in Atlanta raided the home of three board members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund (ASF) and arrested them for the crime of bailing out protesters fighting the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, or Cop City, which is a planned massive training space for law enforcement officers from across the […]
France: June 6 and Beyond: Our Anger Runs Deep and Isn’t About to Cool Off!
June 4, 2023 editorial of the Workplace Newsletters of the Etincelle fraction of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA), translated from French. On Saturday June 3, visitors to Paris’s Disneyland were surprised to see a parade of a thousand angry employees. For several weeks at the initiative of an “anti-inflation movement” (MAI) there have been protests […]
Indian and Other Rail Catastrophes
Last Friday’s train crash along a busy commuter rail line in eastern India brought to the fore – again – the deadly consequences of poor maintenance on rail lines around the world. The crash occurred on a busy intercity line when one passenger train collided head-on with a stationary freight train at 80mph. The impact […]
Solidarity on Striking Writers’ Picket Lines
On May 2, TV and movie writers went on strike for the first time in 15 years. Today’s strike includes some 11,500 film and TV writers, who belong to the union Writers Guild of America (WGA). The strike began when the union and the boss, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which […]
A World Sickened by the Violence of Society
May 30, 2023 editorial of the workplace wewsletters of the Etincelle fraction of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) in France, translated from French. On the night of May 22 or 23, a patient (with a psychiatric history) murdered a nurse on the psychiatric ward of the Reims University Hospital. Her death naturally aroused immense emotion, […]
France: We Stand With the Vertbaudet Workers!
May 22, 2023 editorial of the Workplace Newsletters of the Etincelle fraction of the NPA, translated from French. Last Tuesday, May 16, the police intervened to break up a picket line of workers at the warehouse of a children’s clothing company, Vertbaudet, in Marquette-les-Lille (northern French town). One worker was rushed to a hospital with […]
Harriet Tubman and the Combahee River Raid: One Battle in the Struggle for Freedom
On June 2, 1863, during the U.S. Civil War, two Union Army gunships (the Harriet A. Weed and the John Adams — both converted ferryboats) carrying 150 soldiers proceeded up the Combahee River, about twenty miles south of Charleston, in the heart of South Carolina’s lowland rice region. Guided by a woman with nearly 14 […]