Against the Capitalism that Massacres in Gaza and Exploits in France: Take to the Streets on May Day… and Beyond!
April 29, 2024 editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) in France, translated from French This week, working men and women will be marching to put forward their demands against capitalist exploitation and all that it engenders. It has to be said that, once again this year, capitalism is showing that it only brings disaster […]
$600 Million is an Insult to East Palestine Residents!
Norfolk Southern, the rail company responsible for the massive train derailment in East Palestine in February 2023, agreed to pay $600 Million in a class-action lawsuit settlement on April 9, 2024. On the very same day, they announced their preliminary first quarter 2024 financial results: $3 Billion in revenue and nearly $1B in income (or […]
We Will NOT Be Silenced!
On April 29, the administration of Columbia University in New York City gave an ultimatum to students who are active in opposition to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, demanding they abandon their encampment or be suspended. In response, student activists have occupied one of Columbia’s main halls, renaming it “Hind’s Hall” after Hind Rajab, a […]
New Student Loan Relief Makes No Dent in Crisis
Biden announced a cancellation of $7.4 billion of student loan debt, but he is still part of the system that produced that debt in the first place
1994: The Last genocide of the 20th Century
In 1994, the government of Rwanda, with the help of French imperialism, committed genocide against the Tutsi minority.
Democrats and Republicans Agree to Expand Spying on People Around the World
On Saturday, April 20th, President Biden rushed to sign a two-year renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The renewal of the law made Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer note, “Democrats and Republicans came together and did the right thing for our country’s safety.” FISA allows the federal government and its intelligence agencies to […]
May Day: There Is Power in the Working Class
General Newsletter April 28, 2024 Download .pdf leaflet May Day: There Is Power in the Working Class In the 1880s, the United States was deeply unequal and divided. A few families owned the overwhelming bulk of U.S. wealth, and workers had to work up to 16 hours per day. Workers had no rights on the […]
Estudiantes de Columbia provocan un levantamiento más grande
Desde el ataque del 7 de octubre de Hamás contra Israel y la posterior guerra genocida de Israel contra los palestinos, muchas universidades han vivido una batalla estallada entre quienes apoyan las políticas sionistas de Israel y quienes protestan contra ellas. Poco después de que se materializara la desproporcionada respuesta de Israel al ataque y […]
Volkswagen Workers in Tennessee Vote to Join UAW – Big Challenges Ahead!
About 150,000 U.S. workers in the multinational auto industry don’t have a union. That’s about equal to the number of autoworkers represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW), although the number of non-union autoworkers is higher if those working at parts plants are included. Most of the non-union plants owned by overseas-based companies like Volkswagen […]
Israel Threatens to Drag the World Into its War
The Palestinians are being bombed and starved by Israel with the support of U.S., European and some governments in the Middle East. The horror they are raining down on the people trapped in Gaza is justified as a response to the October 7th attack by Hamas, the party that rules Gaza. Now, the stakes are […]
Remembering Rana Plaza
Greedy cost-cutting led to the Rana Plaza building collapse on April 24, 2013, killing 1,127 workers and injuring 2,500.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Act is a “Climate Time Bomb”
Funding from the 2021 infrastructure bill has funded mostly highways instead of public transit, which means that it will result in more carbon emissions.
We Must Remember the West Bank!
While the Israeli military continues its attack on Gaza, Israeli settlers and the IDF are also attacking Palestinians in the West Bank.
Columbia Students Spark a Larger Uprising!
Since the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent genocidal war on Palestinians, many universities have experienced a simmering battle between those supporting Israel’s Zionist policies and those protesting them. Soon after Israel’s disproportionate response to the attack materialized and it became clear that their war was intended to destroy and displace people […]
We Need More Permanent Staff
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. Travel nurses play a vital role in our hospitals – they help make sure patients are cared for when facilities have higher than usual census, such as during a sudden outbreak, natural disaster, or major accident. […]
Clockin’ In Blues
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. At Highland Hospital, our nurses’ union contract stipulates that we have a 7-minute grace period to clock in before the start of each shift. This ensures that we are settled and ready to take report from […]
Todos los días son Día de los Impuestos para la clase trabajadora
La gente piensa en el 15 de abril como el Día de los Impuestos porque es la fecha de cierre de los impuestos sobre la renta federales y estatales. Si recibes un reembolso, es sólo porque has estado pagando al sistema durante todo el año. Las personas de clase trabajadora pagamos durante todo el año, […]
In the Face of State Repression and Employer Violence, Let’s Stand Together!
The French government is criminalizing support for the Palestinian people, part of a larger repression of protests in general.
The Wrong Way to Stop the Right
Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) made news last week by contributing, for the first time in her nearly five years in the House of Representatives, $260,000 to the campaign arm used by Democrats in the House of Representatives. For her first few years in office, she resisted contributing to the larger fund, choosing to use her […]
Every Day is Tax Day for the Working Class
People think of April 15 as Tax Day because that’s when federal and state income taxes are generally due. If you get a refund, it’s only because you have been paying into the system all year. Working-class people pay all year long, not just income taxes, but sales taxes on all kinds of things we […]
Coral Bleaching Another Canary in the Coal Mine
As the world’s oceans get warmer, that heating is becoming a danger to the diverse ecosystems that live along their edges. Last week the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a new report confirming that the world’s coral reefs are undergoing what researchers say is likely to be “the most widespread and most severe bleaching […]
Israel Took the World to the Brink, and Backed Off, Only to Prepare a New Attack in Gaza
On April 19, Israel launched its attack on Iran. Israel was responding to Iran’s April 14 attack on Israel, which was itself a retaliation for the Israeli assassination of an Iranian general two weeks earlier. Luckily for the world, Israeli officials decided to make a most limited and symbolic strike on Friday. Drones as well […]
Arizona’s Abortion Ban
On Tuesday, April 9, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that an old law from 1864 banning abortions could be enforced. There are no exceptions for rape or incest. The law that dates back to before Arizona became a state criminalizes medical professionals who provide abortions or abortion drugs. It punishes them with prison sentences of […]
Outdoor worker safety under attack in Florida: Who is to blame for the abuse of workers?
Heat-related deaths in the U.S. have skyrocketed due to global climate change. Outdoor workers, as well as elderly people and young children, face the highest risk of overheating. In 2022, heat-related deaths had increased by 95% since 2010, and temperatures are only getting hotter, with 2023 ranking as the hottest year on record. While those with access to […]
La gripe aviar es un producto de la producción industrial de alimentos
Desde principios de 2022 se han sacrificado (matado) más de 82 millones de pollos en Estados Unidos para evitar una mayor propagación de la gripe aviar H5N1. El virus se denomina gripe aviar porque ese el tipo de vida en el que se originó, pero recientemente ha demostrado la capacidad de mutar y propagarse a […]
Continúa aumentando el abuso del trabajo infantil
Desde hace décadas existen leyes que prohíben a los menores de 16 años realizar trabajos peligrosos o trabajar muchas horas que les impidan dormir lo suficiente o ir a la escuela. Salvo contadas excepciones, es ilegal que los empresarios contraten a menores de 14 años. Estas leyes varían de un estado a otro, pero en […]
If Hospital Workers Ran Highland…
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. Alameda Health System CEO James Jackson recently sent out a memo that AHS is facing a budget gap of $100 million for the fiscal year, and needs to close the gap by June of this year. […]
¿Una semana laboral de 32 horas?
Hace algunas semanas, el senador Bernie Sanders presentó presentó oficialmente una nueva legislación que propone reducir la semana laboral a 32 horas, más allá de las cuales se exigiría el pago de horas extras, y sin reducción salarial para los trabajadores que ya trabajan a jornada completa. Una idea similar fue propuesta el año pasado […]
Residents Unionize!
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. In recent weeks, residents from Kaiser Northern California have formalized the process of starting a union. This marks a significant step forward, potentially establishing the first union for residents in a Northern California Kaiser facility and […]
Don’t Be Tricked: Nurses with a Living Wage Improve Patient Care!
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. Last week, Santa Clara County nurses of the Registered Nurses Professional Association went on a three-day strike at three public hospitals – Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (VMC), O’Connor and St. Louise. This was the union’s […]
El presupuesto federal – Los costes del imperio
El día de los impuestos se acerca, lo que igual a cada vez que miramos nuestros sueldos, es un recordatorio de cuánto pagamos cada año… ¿y para qué? A pesar de lo mucho que pagamos en impuestos, todo a nuestro alrededor parece estar cayéndose a pedazos, no sólo las carreteras, sino también los puentes y […]
1934: Unity Between Strikers and the Unemployed Wins a Union
In 1934, the auto parts manufacturing center of Toledo, Ohio was in the grip of the Great Depression, which began with the 1929 stock market crash. One in three workers in this city of 275,000 were unemployed and on relief. The rest of the Toledo working class experienced short work weeks and wage cuts imposed […]
When the Government Declares War on the Unemployed
This is the April 1, 2024 editorial of the New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA) in France, translated from French. Under the pretext of a government deficit, following the growth of subsidies to employers and the swelling of the military budget, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has just declared war on the unemployed. On the program: reduction […]
Bird Flu a Product of Industrial Food Production
Since the beginning of 2022, more than 82 million chickens have been culled (killed) in the United States to avoid the further spread of the H5N1 bird flu. The virus is called a bird flu because that is the category of life in which it originates, but it has recently shown the ability to mutate […]
Child Labor Abuse Continues to Rise
Child labor abuse continues to rise as states weaken laws prohibiting it.
Baltimore: A New Billion-Dollar Jail is Not What We Need
Baltimore is spending a billion dollars on building a new jail.
Deadly Droughts Envelop Southern Africa
Since late 2023, millions of people in southern Africa have been facing an extreme drought, disrupting multiple aspects of their everyday life, including access to food and water. Rainfall levels between late January and February of this year were the lowest in at least 40 years. And for central parts of the region, this February […]
The Federal Budget – Costs of the Empire
Tax day is coming up soon, which along with every time we look at our paychecks, is a reminder of how much we pay each year – and for what? Despite how much we pay in taxes, everything around us seems to be falling apart, not just roads but bridges and other infrastructure and social […]
Famine: a Genocidal Policy for Gaza
Famine is choking the life out of the population of Gaza where two million people struggle to live. At no other point in recent history has there been such starvation of an entire population. The United Nations predicts that more than 200 people will be dying from starvation every day. Nearly 700,000 people, almost a […]
No Rights Without Trans Rights
The recent International Transgender Day of Visibility served as a celebration for all marginalized gender identities, and a reminder of the distance still to go until we have equality for all. The Right continues to use state legislation to scapegoat trans people and the whole LGBTQ+ community. There are constant and growing attacks on our […]
Vanderbilt Students Protest Suppression
Last Tuesday, March 26, police arrested four students and as many as twenty more were suspended on the campus of Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University after they occupied the university’s main hall for twenty-two hours. A local reporter was also arrested. Right-wing media outlets (see any recent coverage by Fox News) are mocking the protesters, painting the […]
AC Transit: The “Rapid” Displacement of Working Class Families
The “Rapid” Displacement of Working Class Families With the Tempo (BRT) up and running from downtown Oakland to San Leandro, one could take a ride and see the status of the neighborhood. East Oakland has long had a reputation for being “rough,” but it has also been home to many of us. But now with separate […]
Nothing Sweet About Working in the Sugar Industry
For centuries, the sugar industry and the slave labor system that produced the world’s sugar, shaped the global economy and condemned millions – from Brazil, the Caribbean islands, Louisiana and more – to short, brutal lives of labor. Now, a recent New York Times and Fuller Project investigation entitled “The Brutality of Sugar: Debt, Child […]
El desastre del puente de Baltimore no tenía por qué haber ocurrido
A la 1:28 de la madrugada del 26 de marzo, un enorme buque de carga, conocido como Dali, colisionó con el puente Francis Scott Key de Baltimore, lo que provocó en cuestión de segundos el derrumbe de la mayor parte de la estructura y la muerte de seis trabajadores de la construcción que estaban reparando […]
Industria aérea: Sus ganancias por encima de nuestras vidas
La industria de la aviación en Estados Unidos ha estado recientemente en las noticias tras una serie de alarmantes incidentes de seguridad. En enero, un panel se desprendió del lado de un Boeing de Alaska Airlines en pleno vuelo, obligando a los pilotos a realizar un aterrizaje de emergencia. Sólo en marzo de 2024, se […]