Month: September 2023

TV and Movie Writers Reach Tentative Agreement

On Sunday, September 24th, the top officers of The Writers Guild of America (WGA), announced a tentative agreement (TA) on a new contract for its 11,500 members who work for Hollywood film and TV studios, like MGM and Disney. WGA members went on strike on April 18th, almost six months ago. The 115,000-member Screen Actors Guild (SAG) struck […]

California Sues Fossil Fuel Companies

The State of California has filed a lawsuit against several fossil fuel companies for their contribution to climate change, and for promoting climate disinformation. The lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, and the American Petroleum Institute alleges that the defendants knew about the climate effects that fossil fuels would cause, and deliberately suppressed that information. […]

Argentina – Anger at the System and Support for the Far Right

On August 13, Argentina went through its primary elections. Unlike the United States, primary elections are a stage in national elections, and all voters are expected to participate and vote for the party they prefer. In this way, the Argentine primaries are really the first step in the elections and a good way to determine […]

In the Face of Inflation: Impose Wage Increases! 

September 25, 2023 editorial of the New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA) in France. Translated from French. Since September 15, thousands of auto workers have been on strike in the United States, at plants belonging to Ford, General Motors (Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, etc.) and Stellantis (the group created in 2021 from the merger of Fiat-Chrysler and PSA, […]

U.S. Navy Prepares for War With China

Last week at the White House, President Biden met with the leaders of small Pacific Island nations, some with a population as small as 1,700 people. Last year, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited Fiji, a nation of less than one million, in the highest level U.S. visit to that nation in at least 36 […]

Huelga de trabajadores de automotrices de la UAW: ¡Esto es guerra de clases!

En las primeras horas del viernes 15 de septiembre, dirigentes sindicales del United Auto Workers (UAW) pidieron a 12,700 trabajadores de tres plantas de ensamblaje que las cerraran. Esto fue parte de la estrategia del UAW para lidiar con la expiración de los contratos de las “Tres Grandes” compañías automotrices: Ford, General Motors (GM) y […]

Día del Trabajo: no es sólo otro día festivo

El Día del Trabajo es un día festivo en los Estados Unidos que supuestamente celebra la historia y los logros de los trabajadores. Algunos políticos y dirigentes sindicales pueden dar discursos celebrando los esfuerzos de los trabajadores del país, incluso cuando millones de trabajadores todavía se ven obligados a trabajar durante el Día del Trabajo. […]

Migrant Children Seek A Better Future; U.S. Bosses See Cheap Labor

Over the past several years, hundreds of thousands of young people without adults (known as unaccompanied minors) have entered into the United States, mainly from Central America, every single year, and the number has been steadily increasing. Many of these youth flee environments in their home countries that are plagued with poverty and violence. Because […]

Kaiser Permanente’s Medical Waste Scandal: The True Cost of Healthcare Profits

Kaiser Permanente, the healthcare giant, has agreed to a $49-million-dollar settlement as a result of its unlawful disposal of hazardous materials, improper management of other medical waste, and mishandling of protected patient data. Investigators found items such as blood and body parts in trash bins destined to go to local landfills. They also found over […]

Earthquake in Morocco, Floods in Libya: Natural Phenomena, But Social Disasters

September 14, 2023 editorial of the New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA) in France. Translated from French. Morocco: our solidarity and anger, false pity in high places On the night of Friday, September 8 to Saturday, September 9, an earthquake struck Morocco. The disaster has already claimed more than 2,900 lives across the country and injured more […]

Workers Have a Right to a 32-Hour Work Week Plus a Big Boost in Pay

In 1940, the United States government set 40 hours as the basic workweek. Since then, pay for hours worked above 40 has been calculated at time and a half. The government passed this law only after workers engaged in massive struggles, including taking over factories until the bosses met their demands, which included not only […]

Child Poverty Spikes Again – Surprised?

In news that drew statements of surprise from liberal news outlets, a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau announced last week that child poverty had more than doubled between 2021 to 2022, going from a rate of 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022. That means that at least 12 of every 100 children […]

France: Against the Criminal Policies of the European Union: Open the Borders!

September 18, 2023 editorial of Révolutionnaires, newspaper of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) in France. Translated from French. Since September 11, 11,000 migrants – men, women and children – have arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa, whose reception capacity is already saturated. We have seen the actions of solidarity from the inhabitants in the […]

The March to End Fossil Fuels: Global Actions Confront the Climate Emergency

On Sunday, September 17, roughly 75,000 people flooded the streets of New York City for the largest demonstration for climate action in years. This was part of a global movement leading up to the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit. Over 500 actions were organized around the world as a global climate action week, with an […]

Biden and Other Global Big Shots Face Off at Summit in India 

Joe Biden recently traveled to India and Vietnam. In India, he attended the annual summit of the Group of 20 or “G20,” a meeting of the leaders of the 20 largest economic powers in the world. The top leaders of China and Russia did not attend, but sent representatives. Biden said he was there to strengthen the United States’ economic […]

Rich Auto Companies Cry Poverty

Capitalists and capitalist corporations – even wealthy and powerful ones like Amazon, Ford and General Motors, or ExxonMobil and British Petroleum – are always competing with one another to cut their labor costs in order to produce their commodities more efficiently and therefore more profitably. When the big owners and corporate CEO’s say they have to cut costs to “remain competitive,” […]

Floods in Libya – An Ecological Catastrophe on Top of A Brutal History

More than 11,000 people have been killed in floods caused by Storm Daniel in Libya. That is only an estimate, and there are fears that as many as 20,000 people might be dead. The death toll is the result of the bursting of two major dams near the city of Derna, combined with extreme rains […]

Devastating Earthquake in Morocco

On September 8, an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 hit southern Morocco, 50 miles southwest of the city of Marrakesh. The earthquake devastated the region of the Atlas Mountains. Nearly three thousand people are believed to be dead after the earthquake and thousands more are injured. The descriptions of what’s happening on the ground are horrendous, […]

UAW Autoworkers Strike: This is Class War!

In the early hours of Friday, September 15th, union officials of the United Auto Workers (UAW) called on 12,700 workers at three assembly plants to shut them down. This was part of the strategy of the UAW in dealing with the contract expiration of the “Big Three” auto companies – Ford, General Motors (GM), and […]

Broadside on the Climate Emergency (September 2023)

download as 11×17 .pdf Articles in this issue: We Are Facing an Environmental Catastrophe Don’t Blame Natural Disasters — Capitalism is Responsible! Climate Change — Today’s Reality Back to the Streets! The Climate Crisis: What Can We Do?

Don’t Blame Natural Disasters — Capitalism is Responsible!

The speed and severity of the disruption of the Earth’s ecosystems and the overall climate of the planet is due to human activity. This also means that we, as humans, have the ability to alter our decisions to prevent the destruction of our natural world — the only home we have. Scientists became aware of […]

We Are Facing an Environmental Catastrophe

A pink sun looming through the thick, burnt orange sky was a sight seen in nearly every corner of the U.S. over the past summer as wildfires spanned the majority of Canada, Alaska, the western U.S., and even Maui, HI. At the same time, unprecedented storms with historic rainfalls brought record-breaking flooding across North America. […]

The Climate Crisis: What Can We Do?

There are already millions around the world out in the streets demanding an end to the destruction of the environment. Faced with the environmental crisis that threatens their lives, millions of farmers, in India, Mexico, East Africa, and around the world have mobilized. And tens of millions of workers have demonstrated around the world against […]

Back to the Streets!

In 2019, millions of people flooded the streets in over 125 countries, united in our understanding that life and our natural world need to be saved from a human-enhanced catastrophe. One teenager in Sweden, Greta Thunberg, staged a school strike every Friday. Media coverage of her protest captured the imagination of people everywhere. Hundreds of […]

Climate Change — Today’s Reality

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, there are at least 20 million people who are forced from their homes because of severe climate changes each year. The people most impacted now live in the parts of the world that have been dominated, politically and economically, by the major capitalist powers. They are often the […]

Billion-Dollar Climate Disasters

We are only two-thirds through the calendar year, and 2023 has already broken the record for the number of billion-dollar weather disasters in the United States, with 23 such events to date. This year’s disasters whose costs exceeded $1 billion include a winter full of torrential rain and flooding in California, hundreds of tornadoes across […]

Leaflet: Climate Emergency (9/17)

What Will it Really Take to Stop Using Fossil Fuels People have already spent decades: Since the first Earth Day in the U.S. in 1970, the actions of millions of people have led to: But what’s the balance sheet? Over 50 years after the first Earth Day, millions of people continue to pour into the […]

Home Insurance Companies Only Protect Themselves from the Climate Crisis

The past few years have seen a huge increase in climate disasters. Wildfires across the West Coast and in Hawaii, mass power outages due to extreme cold in Texas, temperature warnings due to extreme heat in Arizona, and hurricanes powerful enough to reach California, are all symptoms of the growing climate crisis. The costs from […]

Groundwater Depletion Threatens Food and Water Supply

A recent report by the New York Times analyzed the conditions of tens of thousands of aquifers that hold 90 percent of the groundwater used by towns, cities and states throughout the United States. It found that in the past decade, after 40 years of consistent decline, 40% of those aquifers were at all time […]

There’s a new contract between the Teamsters and UPS — what did the workers get?

Leaders of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) announced toward the end of last month that UPS workers had ratified a new five-year contract. The new contract included wage increases of up to 16% for most drivers working full-time, topping out at $47/hr. The new contract eliminates the hated two-tier system for delivery drivers that […]

An Economic Recovery … Of Profits

It seems like every day we are told how great the Biden administration has been for the economy. But it is only the super rich and the corporations that are doing great. Many corporations made record profits in the last two years, especially when inflation was at its peak. Their profits came down a little […]

Heat Waves Make Work A Living Hell

It’s another year of record heat, as soaring temperatures have been sweeping across parts of the country, reaching over 120 degrees in many cities. But during these heat waves, workers have no real protection. Many workplaces don’t have air conditioning, and for those who work outside, there is no escape from the deadly heat. Also, […]

Eviction Filings are Out of Control

The number of people threatened with eviction across the country continues to skyrocket. Landlords filed about 3.6 million eviction notices last year, which is about 50% higher than it was before the pandemic. And these numbers are about to increase again as more cities remove the last remaining protections from eviction that were put in […]

Health Care is About to Get Even More Expensive

Health insurance premiums are about to increase to their highest level, going up on average about 6% this year. Health insurance companies say they have no choice because the cost of health care keeps increasing. But in reality, insurance companies are doing just fine, with the last few years seeing their highest profits ever recorded. […]

The Other Big Lie: Biden’s Climate Policy

Following his big 2020 campaign promises to protect the environment, Biden has done the opposite. And now, heading into the 2024 elections, he is once gain trying to appear as if his administration stands against climate destruction. Recently, Biden wanted to bump his ratings when he grabbed headlines for cancelling all leases approved by Trump […]

Never Again: 50 Years Since the Chilean Workers’ Movement was Crushed

This article was written by a revolutionary socialist comrade from Chile. Never again. That is a phrase that many Chileans grow up hearing when talking about what happened on September 11, 1973. On that day, 50 years ago, a coup led by the fascist Augusto Pinochet, and supported by the United States Central Intelligence Agency […]

A Jail Cell is No Place to Give Birth 

Recently in Tennessee, a woman held at the Montgomery County Jail was forced to give birth alone in her cell, over an hour after seeking medical help. Only two nurses were sent to attend to the pregnant woman, but they were not present when she gave birth, and jail staff failed to immediately get her to a […]

Climate Catastrophe: We are Approaching More Tipping Points

Deadly and destabilizing extreme heat, wildfires, floods, droughts, and storms are affecting more and more people each year, but climate scientists say there is still some hope to keep Earth habitable into the future. Immediate action to end fossil fuel use across the world and build a safe and sustainable planet is absolutely essential – […]

Bernie Sanders Says, “Tax the Rich!” Yes, But How Much?

Bernie Sanders wants the rich to pay more taxes, aiming to support the working class and diminish the influence of billionaires. His proposal is to introduce an annual tax only for those with a net worth of more than $32 million. Sanders is definitely on to something. His website says: Over the last 30 years, the […]

Deadly Johannesburg Fire Was a Predictable Tragedy

On August 31, a fast-moving blaze spread through a formerly abandoned five-story building in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa. Within minutes, dozens of people were trapped in and above the flames. Some managed to escape the inferno with only burns and broken bones. But at the end of the blaze, at least 74 had died. This […]

France: Oppose “Social Dialogue” and Racist Provocations: Back to the Streets!

September 4, 2023 editorial of the Workplace Newsletters of the Etincelle fraction of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA). Translated from French. Profits are at record levels, the crisis is worsening, inflation is squeezing our budgets and wages are falling. The social climate is tense. Macron is doing his utmost to prevent demonstrations and strikes from […]

Francia: Inflación, violencia patronal: regreso a la escuela… para aprender a defenderse

23 de agosto de 2023, Editorial de los boletines laborales de la fracción Etincelle del Nuevo Partido Anticapitalista (NPA), traducido del francés “¿Mi consejo para los consumidores? Visita las tiendas, ejercita tus facultades críticas”. Este es el consejo que da a las familias Michel-Édouard Leclerc, director de la cadena de supermercados Leclerc. Cuando se trata […]

Acusaciones de Trump: ¿La democracia de quién está amenazada?

Los últimos meses han sido históricos por muchas razones. El calor récord ha hecho de este verano el más caluroso de todos, al menos hasta ahora. Estas temperaturas extremas han provocado olas de calor infernales y han contribuido a incendios sin precedentes tanto en Canadá como en Hawái. Pero el clima no es lo único […]

Labor Day – Not Just Another Holiday

Labor Day is a holiday in the United States that supposedly celebrates the history and achievements of working people. Some politicians and union officials may give speeches celebrating the efforts of the nation’s working people, even as millions of workers are still forced to work on Labor Day. For those lucky enough to get the […]