Category: Articles

They Can’t Erase Reality

In a matter of weeks Trump, Musk and his DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) force, and the new heads of government agencies have been tearing things up in Washington. Who could believe that this band of billionaires is rooting out wasteful spending for our benefit? It’s clear that their goal is to enrich themselves from […]

Baltimore County Students Fight Back Against ICE Oppression!

Baltimore County students erupted in protest last week in response to the racist and xenophobic tweets of one of their teachers threatening to turn students’ names over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. On Feb. 3, a day where some tried to organize “A Day Without Immigrants” protests, an Overlea High School teacher […]

Politics

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) – rapid transit rail system in the San Francisco Bay Area Politics The politics swirling around us can be overwhelming and a reason to duck and cover from it all. But, as the old saying goes, “If you don’t do politics, […]

February Is Black History Month

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) – rapid transit rail system in the San Francisco Bay Area February Is Black History Month In addition to all the changes the Trump administration is trying to impose, they are trying to rewrite history. No Black History Month.  No Women’s […]

Attacks on the Horizon at Kaiser

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. Once again an attack on Kaiser workers is on the horizon. At Kaiser Vacaville and Vallejo, as well as other facilities, Kaiser management is cutting security guards and other similar contractor positions, a total of 300 […]

We Want Cashiers, Not Kiosks!

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. AHS Food and Nutrition management is considering replacing cashiers in our cafeterias at Highland and other facilities with self-serve kiosks. This plan not only poses significant challenges—like the fact that many fresh prepared foods don’t scan […]

We Keep Our Patients Safe

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. Within hours of Trump’s inauguration last month, he revoked a federal policy that had previously kept hospitals and other healthcare facilities safe from immigration agent raids. Healthcare workers across the country expressed outrage that their patients […]

Trump Has Ripped the Mask Off Their Brutal System

The Trump administration has continued its slew of executive orders and coordinated attacks on various sections of the population. This is a strategy of shock and awe, designed to overwhelm and disorient people, and to go after the most marginalized in order to shift attention and blame for society’s problems away from the wealthy. And […]

The Attack on Immigrant Workers is an Attack on Us All!

The second Trump administration has begun with aggressive targeting of immigrant communities. From San Jose to Chicago to Miami, close to one thousand people a day have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be deported. There are even now talks of daily quotas, 1,500 arrests nationwide, and 75 for each ICE field […]

Profits Over Lives at the New Orleans Super Bowl

In preparation for Super Bowl LIX, Louisiana state police and other law enforcement agencies evicted all residents of several of New Orleans’ largest homeless encampments with the threat of arrest. Unhoused people were forced to watch while police ripped apart tents with a front-end loader, and over 100 people were put on buses and sent […]

France: To the “Bosses’ Disgruntlement,” Let’s Oppose Our United Anger!

February 3, 2025 editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French Bernard Arnault, CEO of luxury group LVMH, the richest man in France and one of the richest on the planet, shamelessly put on a show of whining that, as a tax-crushed billionaire, he would have no choice but to relocate […]

These Attacks are Meant to Stop Us. We Can’t Let Them!

Announcement after announcement about planned executive orders have been filling up our news feeds in the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s second presidential term. From education to healthcare to food access to queer, trans, and immigrant rights, Trump’s administration has asserted plans to cut federal support for programs that many of us rely on. […]

Kaiser Mental Health Workers Strike Reaches 100 Days While Fires Blaze

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. This Tuesday, January 28th, marks the 100th day that Kaiser Southern California mental health workers have been on strike. Kaiser management and the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), the union representing striking mental health workers, […]

Still Waiting to Get Paid

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. As of January 2023, California law requires that public hospital employers pay an additional one hour of penalty pay every time they force nurses to work through their shifts without meal or rest breaks. Alameda Health […]

French and Immigrant Workers: Same Bosses, Same Fight!

January 27, 2025 editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French On January 23, [French] Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau sent an announcement to all [regional authorities], tightening the conditions for foreigners entering and staying in France. Taking the place of a 2012 announcement from Manuel Valls, it will further reinforce the […]

Norovirus at John George: An Unacceptable Situation

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. John George Psychiatric Hospital is currently dealing with a norovirus outbreak, leading to widespread cases of vomiting and diarrhea among patients. Highly contagious infections like norovirus can spread rapidly in enclosed spaces like hospitals, but this […]

1834: Andrew Jackson, Strikebreaker

In 1828, construction was begun on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, a canal proposed to bring coal from the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania to the capitol at Washington, D.C. The C&O Canal company was the builder and faced both engineering and human challenges in constructing the canal. The work involved digging, excavating and building in […]

Workers of All Countries, Now More Than Ever, Solidarity with Palestine!

January 20, 2025 editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French Last Sunday, for the first time in 470 days, Israel did not bomb Gaza. We can only share the relief of the Palestinian population affected by hunger and epidemics. This ceasefire was conceded by Israel. But there is no doubt […]

Their Whole System is the Problem — Not Migrants

Trump has now been in power for a week. Since taking office, he has shown very clearly whose interests he intends to represent. Trump’s inauguration was attended by some of the wealthiest and most powerful CEOs in our society, including the three richest men in the world — Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk […]

Leonard Peltier’s Sentence is Commuted! But Don’t Give Biden Credit

As Biden ended his presidential term, one of his last acts was to commute the sentence of Leonard Peltier, an Indigenous Rights activist. Peltier was active with the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) and a fighter at Wounded Knee in 1973, which took over a small South Dakota town in a 71-day standoff with federal agents […]

Zuckerberg’s Meta Promotes Gender Based Oppression

In the weeks preceding Donald Trump’s inauguration, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram), directed the company to institute new policies that actually promote oppression based on gender. One such change was to Meta’s Hateful Conduct policy. The new policy still includes bans on some forms of discriminatory speech, […]

Book Review – Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right

In her many books, sociologist Arlie Russell-Hochschild has emphasized the role that human emotions play as people interact with the larger world around them. Whether bringing to light the effects that work and economic necessity have on the family and gender roles or connecting human feelings of loss to the rise of the political right, […]

Bay Area “Sickout” for Palestine

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. Last Monday, January 6th, healthcare care workers in the Bay Area and across the country called attention to the ongoing genocide in Gaza by calling out sick from work in large numbers–known as a “sickout.” The […]

What’s Kaiser Planning?

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. Once more, Kaiser management is planning changes to our jobs while not asking for anyone’s feedback, which negatively impacts our work. For the last year, a threat has been looming on the horizon, and now it […]

AHS Board Ignores Workers

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. On January 8th, the Alameda Health System Board of Directors met to discuss their financial plans for the year. For the third time, AHS workers and Alameda County residents showed up to speak to the board, […]

Energy Companies Profit, and We Pay the Price!

BGE (Baltimore Gas and Electric Company) is increasing their prices for gas and electricity again, and Baltimore area residents will be paying through the nose. BGE is owned by Exelon, a national corporation that rakes in profits from its energy sales. According to Exelon’s 2024 financial report, BGE made $423 million in profits for Exelon […]

Global Temperatures Higher Than Ever

12-month average global temperatures have exceeded 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial averages in 2024. Capitalism is competely failing to prevent climate catastrophe.

New Orleans: The Chickens Come Home to Roost

In the early morning hours of New Year’s Day, Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar drove a pickup truck through Bourbon Street in New Orleans where thousands were still celebrating the new year. After killing at least 14 and injuring dozens more, he got out of the truck and died in a shootout with police. Once it appeared […]

Unhoused Population Reaches New High

The latest data on homelessness from the Department of Housing and Urban Development shows that the number of unhoused in the U.S. increased by 18% over just the past year, to at least 770,000. Analysts correctly note that the end of Covid-era eviction protections plus a surge in immigrants to a few urban areas like […]

Wounded Knee Massacre: A Symbolic End

After 280 or more years of consistent conflict between white settlers of the ever-expanding United States and the indigenous peoples who first populated North America, the fate of those indigenous peoples was symbolically sealed in a massacre on the northern great plains. On December 29, 1890, soldiers of the U.S. Cavalry massacred at least 250 […]

So-Called “Anti-Communist” Laws are Attacks on Workers and Oppressed People

A new bill attacking freedom of expression in public education passed in the U.S. House of Representatives with a huge majority, earning votes from both Democrats and Republicans. The bill is called “The Crucial Communism Teaching Act,” and it will provide schools with packages of anti-communist propaganda to include in their curricula. The so-called “Victims […]

Bankrupt or Not, Working People in Oakland will Bear the Brunt

On November 15, Oaklandside, a local Oakland news outlet, published an article on the city of Oakland’s imminent bankruptcy based off a report from the city’s legislative website. However, on the very same day the article was published, the city removed the report and published a different version. The original report projected the city would […]

Global Drying is Accelerating Under Capitalism

People and ecosystems in almost every region in the world are threatened by rising aridification, according to a recent report from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Aridification is different from droughts: droughts can be severely damaging to a region, but they eventually end. Aridification, on the other hand, is permanent. In the last […]

Teamsters Mount Picket Lines at Amazon Facilities to Demand Big Changes

Conditions at Amazon are so bad that in some years, 75% of the approximately 900,000 Amazon “logistics” workers (delivery drivers and warehouse workers) leave the company. Starting pay can be as little as $18.50 an hour. These logistics workers face unpredictable schedules such as short work weeks followed by weeks with compulsory overtime. The unpredictable […]

Cancel and Lie? It’s the Same Story

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. In 2022, when Northern California Kaiser mental health workers went on strike for 10 weeks, Kaiser publicly claimed they were finding alternative providers. They did this because even during a strike, Kaiser is required by California […]

What’s the Deal With the Double Standard?

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. When hospital staff come to work, we expect every department to do their part to take care of patients and keep the hospital running. We know we can trust the nurses to provide care, the food […]

AHS Workers Support Divestment

This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA. Over 700 AHS workers have signed a petition calling for an ethical investment policy, representing nearly 15% of AHS employees. These workers are standing up to demand that their retirement funds no longer support weapons manufacturers […]

BART in the News

The following is reprinted from Speak Out Now’s workplace newsletter at Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). BART is in the news and as usual it’s the question of funding – or no funding. There are projections of a bare-bones system running trains every hour. Who will ride that, other than the regulars looking for a […]

Fall of a Family Dictatorship in Syria – What Next?

The stunning fall of Bashar Al-Assad took place in less than two weeks. On November 27, armed groups began an offensive in northwestern Syria, near the city of Aleppo. After retaking Aleppo on November 29, they advanced southward, and the army of the regime began to crumble. After taking two other key cities along a major […]