Who Really Owns the Climate Crisis?
The climate crisis is caused by the corporations and politicians who profit from fossil fuel extraction.
ER Boarding at Crisis Levels
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. The Highland emergency department, although usually overcrowded, has recently been dangerously over capacity. With the hospital fully impacted with patients, there is nowhere to admit people waiting in the ER. This leads to patients who have orders to […]
We Need the Union, And Then Some
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. For those of us lucky enough to be in a union, it plays an important role. But we can’t just rely on the union – we have to play an active role in struggles ourselves if we want […]
Is AHS Trying to Privatize Our Hospital?
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. The rapidity and carelessness of these layoffs has made many of us question if AHS has had ulterior motives with these sudden cuts. Given we have been denied rational explanations for why certain positions and services were targeted, […]
AHS Workers Stand Up To the Board
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. Last week’s Board of Trustees meeting kicked off with over two hours of public comment about the recent layoffs, despite speakers being limited to one minute each. Speakers included AHS workers from across the healthcare system who stood […]
AHS is Breaking the Law
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. California state law requires that county healthcare facilities hold public hearings (known as Beilenson Hearings) before reducing or eliminating any services. The law requires that the board provide notice of all proposed reductions, how many community members will […]
Letter From an AHS Worker:
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. After 10 years of working for Alameda Health System, I was notified on January 6, 2026, that I would be laid off effective March 9th due to the so-called “big beautiful bill,” and this has had a devastating […]
Layoff Chaos
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. The layoff notices sent out by AHS were a total disaster. Some workers received layoff notices which were rescinded the very next day. Some workers were laid off and told to stay home on administrative leave, then told […]
A World of Instability Amid Growing Imperialist Rivalries
Note: This text was completed on December 15, 2025 by Speak Out Socialists as background information for a discussion about the current international situation. It has not been updated to include the many important national and international events that have unfolded since its completion. download as .pdf Introduction Increasing international instability continues to define the […]
Minneapolis Shows It is Up to Us!
The murdering, masked ICE thugs, who’ve invaded the Minneapolis region for the past weeks, have carried out another blatant execution. On Saturday, ICE agents murdered Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse working at the VA Hospital in Minneapolis, and a U.S. citizen. He was filming ICE on his phone as they attacked a woman on […]
Greenland and Venezuela: Just the Latest Examples of Imperialist Aggression
The news in recent weeks has been full of headlines about U.S. foreign policy under Donald Trump’s increasingly aggressive regime. Although his government has carried out attacks on Iran, Yemen, Somalia and Nigeria since beginning his second term, it was the recent attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president, plus Trump’s threatening rhetoric […]
There IS Fraud!
In recent weeks there has been a lot of attention on sensational claims of large-scale fraud, in this case supposedly perpetrated by the Somali-American community concentrated in Minneapolis. The latest episode of scapegoating against Somali Americans was prompted by a viral video created by a rightwing youtuber. While the video is full of distortions and […]
“Minnesota’s got the ICE melt!” A Mass Movement Against Racist Terror
A crowd of between 50,000 and 100,000 people assembled in Minneapolis on the afternoon of Friday, January 23 in -9° F conditions, to demand an end to the recent terror campaign and occupation of their city by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol. The city was engaging in a powerful day of protest […]
Workers Tell the Board: No Layoffs!
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. Last week, more than 70 people spoke at the Board of Trustees meeting, urging board members to halt the layoffs and stop cuts to important patient services. Hundreds gathered at Highland to show their support for the workers […]
The Billionaire Class Declares War on the Working Class!
January 19, 2026, editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French. The year 2026 has barely begun, and already threats are mounting. After bombing Nigeria on December 25, Trump had Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro kidnapped on January 3 to get his hands on the country’s oil. Then he once again threatened […]
The Islamic Republic of Iran Shaken by Revolt
On December 28, masses of people took to the streets across Iran in protests that, in many cases, called for the downfall of the Islamic Republic. The Iranian regime responded with intense repression against the protesters with at least 4,500 reported massacred and many more missing. Not only was the regime shaken by the revolt […]
The Only Solution is Solidarity!
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. A hospital system relies on all types of workers to make it function – from therapists who ensure patients can safely swallow or move, to kitchen staff who cook and serve meals for patients and their families, to […]
So How Do We Organize?
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. The administration was trying to limit our ability to organize with our coworkers by doing this over the holidays, when workers are out of town or visiting family. They were planning on immediately taking away workers’ badge access […]
What Can We Expect From These Cuts?
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. Proposed cuts will target multiple departments of the hospital. But what do these cuts mean for the functioning of our healthcare system? Department managers have NO PLANS for how to adjust to these changes in staffing. Click here […]
Film Review: Take Out
Take Out, a 2004 movie by Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou, follows one day in the life of a delivery worker at a Chinese takeout restaurant in upper Manhattan. In only 90 minutes the film takes us into the world of immigrant workers and the harsh work and constrained environments that they struggle through day […]
NYC Nurses on Strike!
On Monday, January 12, nearly 15,000 nurses at three of New York City’s largest hospital systems went on strike. While they are demanding better pay, they are also fighting for improved work conditions and to protect benefits they already have. This strike is part of an ongoing nationwide conflict between health care workers and hospital […]
Layoffs Brought to You By COT
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. The team deciding on who to cut was made up of current AHS healthcare workers who know the system, right? Wrong! A furniture salesman, a realtor, and a nurse who hasn’t worked in 40 years. Makes $en$e! Layoff […]
Why not cut from the top?
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. The executives have banded together to lay off the workers who actually do the work in the hospitals and clinics across AHS. But what do these managers and executives do? They’re the ones taking home the fat paychecks […]
Bay Area Public Meeting (Sun, Feb 1): ICE OUT! We Can Organize to Defend Ourselves
Bay Area Speak Out Socialists Public Meeting We can’t wait as ICE continues to invade and terrorize our communities. Workers in hospitals, teachers in schools, and people in our neighborhoods have already begun to organize to stop ICE terror. Come to an organizing meeting and panel discussion with speakers who’ve already started to do this […]
AHS: Follow the F’ing Law!
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. Is AHS delaying layoff announcements because what they have been trying to do is illegal? According to California’s Beilenson’s Act, county boards are required to hold public hearings before making major changes to healthcare services at county facilities. […]
Our Holiday Bonus This year: Anxiety
This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. While layoff notices are being delayed from December 24th to January 6th, the dread of wondering if you’re still “on the list” now only has more time to fester. The damage has been done – announcing layoffs for […]
Imperialism on the Move; Will the People Strike Back Soon?
January 12, 2026, editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French. After Trump’s military intervention in Venezuela to seize its oil, after reaffirming his desire to take over Greenland and its resources, now it’s Iran that the American leader is threatening with another military intervention. The pretext is to come to […]
2026: It’s All of Us vs. the Billionaire Class
2026 has begun with the Trump administration escalating their brutality against the population and increasing their threats to the world. They are drawing a line in the sand: it is the tiny class of billionaires and those who protect them on one side, and the rest of us on the other. Which direction things continue […]
Minnesotans Are Defending Their Communities Against Authoritarian ICE Terror
The U.S. government’s terror agents in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are carrying out their most aggressively violent attack campaign to date. Over 3,000 agents have flooded into Minneapolis and elsewhere in Minnesota in the past weeks. They are carrying out a brutally racist operation against local Somali and […]
Despite repression by the Islamic regime, anger is spreading in Iran
January 3, 2026 article from the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French. In recent days, massive protests have erupted in major Iranian cities. Tehran merchants were quickly joined by students and larger segments of the population in these protests, which were initially caused by the rising cost of living (a 250% increase […]
We Must Oppose the Imperialist Aggression to Seize Venezuela’s Wealth
January 3, 2026 Statement from the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French. J Trump, the President of the United States, has claimed responsibility for the airstrikes on Venezuela, the human cost of which remains unknown at this time. He also claimed to have captured Maduro, the Venezuelan president, whom he accuses of […]