DACA: The Supreme Court Will Not Decide Our Fate!
The Supreme Court began hearing arguments to determine whether the Trump administration can end the program known as DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which provides protection from deportation for about 700,000 people, often called Dreamers. The Trump administration tried to end DACA in 2017 but their decision was blocked by a federal judge and […]
Macron is afraid of social unrest…. and rightly so!
“In Lyon-II, we have students who go hungry:” the president of this university, Nathalie Dompnier, evoked the 22-year-old student Anas K, who set himself on fire to protest against the precarious situation of many students, like his own. Everyone was upset – parents whose children struggle between college and odd jobs, teachers amazed to find […]
Macron subscribes to Le Pen
The government is under pressure. It fears an extension of the fights against its attacks, after the strikes in railways, Paris public transports, hospitals and elsewhere, not to mention the still active Yellow Jackets. So it finds scapegoats and uses the old distraction recipe: anti-immigrant talk. Macron insults the working class by pretending to believe […]
Iraq: Protests Erupt, Government Scrambles
The population of Iraq flooded into the streets of Baghdad this October, calling for a better life; the life that was promised to them when the US invaded Iraq in 2003. This invasion was supposed to replace a dictatorship with democracy, and poverty with jobs, and a decent life. Instead Iraqis have found that the […]
California Fires: Profiting from Destruction
Last week, California was on fire. Again! Of the state’s 58 counties, 43 were under a “Red Flag” warning, which means a severe danger of wildfires. At one point 12 separate wildfires were raging across the state, which have burned over 100,000 acres. The Kincade Fire in Sonoma County forced 200,000 people to flee and […]
It’s a global fight…
From Algiers to Santiago, From Port-au-Prince to Hong Kong, and from Bayreuth to Panama, from one continent to another, people are rising. The rebellion is deep-rooted, millions of demonstrators are highly determined. And the mobilisations persist, despite police and military repression. What’s at stake is critical: the fall of governments in power, including those of […]
Who are the Kurds? Why is Turkey Trying to Kill Them?
Following Trump’s order for the U.S. military to withdraw from Kurdish territory, attention has been focused on the Kurds in Northern Syria. To understand what’s at stake, and what’s behind Turkey’s attacks, it’s important to understand the history of the Kurdish people and their struggle for freedom, and often for their very existence. The Kurdish […]
US Government Decides More Will Go Hungry
The government has cut $4 billion from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), as well as subsidized school lunch programs for 2020. Imagine living off of $25,750 for a family of four (maybe you don’t have to imagine)! This is currently the official “poverty line”. To qualify for free lunch in school the family has […]
Revolt from Below: From Chile to Lebanon
Sometimes people take matters into their own hands and make history. When they do, anything is possible. In the last weeks, revolts have erupted across the globe, with some of the biggest protests ongoing in Lebanon and Chile. The divisions that usually keep people apart are forgotten overnight. Together, the masses of people demand a […]
From one revolt to another: time to change the system?
With one million demonstrators in the streets of Santiago last Friday, the Chilean mass mobilisation that started on October 18th is getting stronger. The announcement that the metro ticket price would increase provoked people’s anger. High school students were the first ones to react against this new blow on the standard of living of the […]
The Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World
As Dr. King said, the US is “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world”. Today the US government maintains nearly 800 military bases in more than 70 countries. If we include troops stationed at embassies and black sites around the globe, the number could exceed 1,000. Thanks to a new military budget approved by […]
Support railway workers against the law of maximum profit
On October 16th, a train accident in the Ardennes forest, at the Saint-Pierre-sur-Vence level crossing, demonstrated how the National Railways Company (SNCF) cost cutting strategy endangers lives. A catastrophe was only avoided thanks to the actions of the train driver, who was the only SNCF employee on the train. Railway workers are fed up and […]
PG&E: Our Lives vs. Their Profits
Over two million people in Central and Northern California recently had their power abruptly shut off by the utility company Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). Most residents had less than 48 hours notice that their power would be shut off for as long as a week, and had to rush to prepare for the chaos […]
Erdogan’s dirty war in Syrian Kurdistan: Trump and Macron are accomplices!
Since 9th October, the Turkish army attacks on North Syria have already killed hundreds. Towns and cities in Syrian Kurdistan are bombed constantly. At least 130,000 people have already fled the combat zone. And the war can only grow with Syrian dictator Assad sending troops to protect his territory from the Turkish invasion. While Trump, […]
Stop the Murderous Assault on the Kurdish People!
After a phone call with Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President Trump ordered U.S. troops stationed in Northern Syria to withdraw. This small detachment of U.S. troops had been collaborating with and provided some cover for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a military force led by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) which are the […]
PG&E: Capitalism’s Revenge on the Customer
PG&E itself sure doesn’t trust the infrastructure it’s in charge of maintaining. It’s not surprising that they tell us we can expect more of these massive power outages in the future. This is capitalism’s revenge on the customer: PG&E gets to keep control of our electricity and gas even when the company’s actions turn out […]
A Blow to the NCAA Profit Margin
The NCAA is an intercollegiate association that regulates and organizes all college sports and enjoys non-profit status by awarding scholarships to student athletes. For as long as it’s existed, the NCAA has prohibited these athletes for being compensated for their work. Although the organization has received criticism about this law for many years, it has […]
Macron insults the “lower classes”
Just as President Macron wished, the debate on immigration opened in the National Assembly on Monday, followed by the Senate on Wednesday. Most of all, what Macron wishes that this debate is talked about everywhere. Despised, Macron has decided to take a page out of the playbook of Marine Le Pen (leader of the far-right […]
Impeach The Whole System!
The media is full of talk about impeaching President Trump. Why? Trump held up promised military aid to Ukraine. Then, in a recorded phone conversation, he asked the Ukrainian president for a “favor” – to investigate and give him damaging information about Joe Biden, his possible Democratic Party rival in the 2020 presidential election. Trump […]
Lubrizol: oil obscures the transparency
While there were no immediate victims, the Lubrizol plant accident, only three kilometres from Rouen city centre – the worse accident in France since the 2001 AZF explosion in Toulouse – shows the lack of concern of industry owners and government about risk management. Meanwhile, Macron talks big at the United Nations instead of constraining […]
1949: When China Shook the World
“China has stood up!” Those were the words of Mao Tse-Tung, leader of one of the greatest popular revolutions in history – the Chinese Revolution of 1949. October 1st marks the 70th anniversary of the revolution when China fought against foreign domination and won. Despite the gains of the revolution, the Chinese people face many […]
Make them back down!
Last Saturday in Paris, the government deployed its heavy artillery: 7,500 police officers were mobilised, police checked any gathering of 10 people, and in the end arrested 163 people. No doubt, the priority was to prevent the yellow jackets and the climate movement marches to mobilise massively. Yet thousands of demonstrators marched in Paris and […]
Environment on the Brink
In June thousands of mussels literally cooked in their shells along Bodega Bay, just north of San Francisco. Climate catastrophe is not about some far away future. The past five years have been the world’s hottest ever recorded. This past July was the hottest month ever recorded. In France, an all-time record was set at […]
Everything to Lose – A World to Win
On September 20 an estimated four to five million people in 185 countries, mostly young people, took the streets in protest against fossil fuels, pipelines, and the banks and politicians that fund them. Parts of the world are on fire while others are flooded. Last year the city of Paradise was burned to the ground […]
The U.S. Border Crisis: A Crisis of the Capitalist System
The capitalist system has created an international crisis of displaced people due to a convergence of factors.
Make them back down!
Last Friday, Paris Public Transportation employees had the best response against the attack being prepared against our pensions: a massive strike. The strike involved train drivers as well as maintenance workers. Many departments were practically 100% on strike. Management kept a low profile… An attack against all workers Hoping to smooth things down, the government […]
American Factory: An insight into industrial America
The new documentary on Netflix called American Factory gives a vivid picture of a story that we’re all familiar with. The auto-factory that was the economic lifeblood for Dayton, Ohio closes after the 2008 crash. This displaces about 10,000 workers in the community that depend on union wages to support their families. Almost seven years […]
Hong Kong: A People’s Storm Over Asia
Since March, Hong Kong has been rocked by mass demonstrations. The protesters opposed a bill that would allow people in Hong Kong to be sent to mainland China for trial. Hong Kongers feared that the Chinese government would use the law to target and imprison activists who oppose the current regime. On September 4, the […]
Labor Day 2019 – We Have Something to Celebrate!
What is Labor Day? It’s an official U.S. holiday that supposedly celebrates working people. Politicians and union officials make speeches praising hard work. Some workers may get the day as a paid holiday, but many workers don’t, with businesses open with special sales and for others it’s just another Monday. So, in fact, millions of […]
Hong Kong: Storm over Asia
August 30, 2019; An updated article based on an August 19, 2019 L’Étincelle Editorial All summer Hong Kong has been rocked by mass demonstrations against a bill allowing the extradition of political oppositionists to mainland China. Three young oppositionists were arrested in Hong Kong just days before tomorrow’s scheduled demonstration commemorating the 5th anniversary of […]
The Only Minority We Should Oppose is the 1%
Trump’s anti-immigrant and racist rants have been the centerpiece of his campaign rallies, tweets and press conferences. He portrays immigrants from Mexico and countries to the south as rapists, criminals and gang members. He says these immigrants are an invasion, coming to attack us, to take our jobs and to take advantage of government assistance. […]
Nuclear War – A Threat to Our Existence
More and more people are concerned about the possible end of the world as we know it, posed by climate change. But humanity also continues to face a long-standing threat – that of nuclear war. August 6 marks the 74th anniversary of the U.S, dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan and three days later […]
Puerto Rico – The Power is in the Streets!
In the past two weeks the people of Puerto Rico have stood together against the corrupt government that has dominated their lives. In an island of 3.2 million people, 500,000 took to the streets. Workers waged a general strike shutting the island’s economy down. In the face of this determination, Ricardo Rosselló, the precious untouchable […]
Stop the Abuse! Close the Camps!
Imagine your three-year old child being ripped from your arms and caged in a prison with other terrified children. Your kidnapped child is then sent to live with a family of total strangers for several months, or even years. They cry inconsolably for days on end, begging to see you. You have no way to […]
Fight Back Against Attacks on Women’s Rights!
Women’s rights are under attack! When Trump ran for president, he promised anti-abortion activists that he would work to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized a woman’s right to have an abortion. In the first few months of 2019, eleven states have passed new laws virtually prohibiting a woman’s right to choose […]
Acts speak louder than words
Climate experts are saying that temperature peaks will get higher and higher… With the heat wave that just hit us, we got a sense of the climate emergency. This did not escape Macron’s attention. At the G20 summit in Osaka he played tough, threatening those who might want to follow in Trump’s steps and run […]
Trump and Iran – Recklessly Threatening a Bloody War
Last week, tensions escalated between the U.S. and the Iranian governments, with President Trump claiming that he had been just ten minutes away from ordering a strike on Iran. The Iranian government responded by saying it would retaliate with force as well. In other words, the U.S. almost launched a war against one of the […]
Ban layoffs and job cuts!
Over 5,000 people demonstrated last Saturday in Belfort against the planned 1,000 layoffs at General Electric. GE, Ford, Peugeot, Carrefour: the government is an accomplice to the large corporations that are laying off employees, and is leading by example with job cuts in the Post Office, National Railways, Hospitals and Education. We can expect nothing […]
Pride! Recapture the Spirit of Stonewall!
June is Pride month, we see rainbow displays in store windows and pride flags hanging from buildings and cars. The Pride Parade at the end of June transforms San Francisco into a colorful festival. Many who come to Pride don’t know where it came from. In many ways it has become more of a corporate […]
NBA Finals: More Than a Game
It’s the NBA finals. The Golden State Warriors are facing the Toronto Raptors, Canada’s only NBA basketball team, a team that has never made it this far. But if the Warriors win, it will be three championships in a row, their fourth in the last five years. For five years in a row, the months […]
Against Macron and his “act 2”, a new round of fights.
The ballot boxes have just been put back into storage, and the government and the bosses already are back to business. The bosses had waited a few weeks or months before announcing bad news about jobs, to avoid embarrassment for the government. But they didn’t even wait 48 hours to make announcement after announcement about […]
The electoral show is over… Back to serious matter!
Marine Le Pen is happy: her party (RN) got the most votes at the European elections in France. Except it did not win by the expected huge margin; it even got less votes than in 2014. And many voted RN out of spite against Macron. Macron is happy: his score was not as bad as […]
For a workers’ Europe, vote Lutte Ouvrière
With the European elections approaching, we keep being told there are only two choices: punish Macron by voting for any party that might finish first, in front of the president’s party, you know who we mean; or hold our noses and vote for Macron’s list for fear of Le Pen. We are asked to make […]
The U.S Government – Bully of the World
In response to the supposed threat of Iran’s plans to attack U.S. forces or personnel, the U.S. military recently ordered non-emergency personnel out of Iraq and updated its military plans which now includes the possibility of sending 120,000 more troops to the Middle East. They sent a second aircraft carrier group to the Persian Gulf, […]
For a workers’ Europe, vote Lutte Ouvrière
In this European election campaign, Nathalie Loiseau and Macron are presenting themselves as the “progressive”, defenders of the European union against nationalism, which leads to war. But it is not easy to swallow their propaganda. Macron’s “progressive” outlook These alleged “progressive” are responsible for social regression. The public servants who were on strike and in […]
Fake attacks, true emergencies
“They attacked the Pitié-Salpetrière hospital…” declared Christophe Castaner, the interior minister. That was on May 1st, after some demonstrators sought refuge on this Paris hospital grounds to escape from police attacks and tear gas flooding the neighbouring streets. Targeting the demonstrators Despite the stupidity of such a lie, contradicted by all witness accounts within hours […]
We Should Work To Live, Not Live To Work
While the US economy has grown nearly 60% in the last few decades—bringing in record profits for corporations—workers’ wages have remained stagnant at best. Nationally, workers earn a median income of $44,500, not much more than what we made 40 years ago when adjusted for inflation. Meanwhile, CEO’s of some of the biggest corporations are […]
May 1st… May 4th… May 9th… All together in yellow and in red
Poor Macron! Not only his great bla-bla was a flop, but the streets are still filling with determined yellow jackets every Saturday. This time again, act 24 was an inspired response to his smokescreen press conference. Macron has no option left but to rely on the cops who gas, hit and maim the demonstrators. And […]
May Day Is Still Our Holiday!
Workers around the world celebrate every May Day (May 1st) as International Workers Day, not just to honor working people, but to commemorate our struggles against capitalist exploitation. This workers’ holiday began in the United States in the 1880s during the fight for the 8-hour day. Hundreds of thousands of American workers in 1886 went […]
Failing Schools or a Failed System?
Almost everyone who is involved in education knows that it isn’t working the way it should be. School days can be spent racing from class to class with no time to think. Many just wait for the day to end. Both students and teachers can feel trapped in classes that seem boring or irrelevant. With […]