Tightening borders and anti-migrant demagogy: a trap for workers
Marine le Pen thought she was making a great publicity stunt when she arrived with television and radio crews in a small southern village that will host 72 migrants in an old retirement home… But instead of finding sympathy from the villagers, she had to face 50 people blocking her way and shouting at her […]
Nike: Just Do It for the Profit
Nike recently released an ad narrated by former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. The ad has been viewed over 25 million times on YouTube. After its release, major news companies aired video footage of people burning Nike shoes, exaggerating the opposition to the ad. President Trump chimed in denouncing Nike. But overall many people reacted favorably […]
Rising Up Behind Bars – National Prisoners’ Strike
On August 21, prisoners in 17 different states launched a prison strike against the brutal conditions and state violence directed primarily against the poor and minorities. Prisoners are refusing to work or eat for the 19 days of the strike. The strike, coordinated and spread by the prisoners themselves, reached into prisons across the U.S. […]
Back to School – We Need to Fight for Good Schools for All!
As they do every year, school superintendents and principals across the country have made their speeches about their hopes for the new school year. But reality doesn’t inspire much hope. While the high school graduation rate is about 91 percent nationwide, the rates of high school seniors who test “proficient” are just 37 percent in […]
Climate Change: Their System is Not Normal
While the summer fires blazed throughout California, burning over 600,000 acres and destroying thousands of homes, Governor Jerry Brown said: “We’re in a new normal.” It’s true that the scale of these fires is new mainly since climate change has caused sky-rocketing temperatures and intensified drought conditions, making for ever-growing fire seasons. But the catastrophes […]
Lead in Our Water: Poisoning the Poor
In the spring of 2016, reports showed that schools in Newark, New Jersey had high levels of lead in their water. But besides shutting off contaminated water outlets and supplying some filters, that was it – there was no further information, no more repairs. Students, education workers, and the community were kept in the dark […]
Film Review: Sorry to Bother You
Capitalism is a system that forces people into roles they wouldn’t otherwise choose, just to make money. Workers talk, act, and follow rules set down by the boss whose agenda is money-making overall. Writer and director Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You revolves around this fact – to get ahead you must follow the bosses’ […]
Global Warming Is Here – Our Future Is At Stake
Gov. Jerry Brown’s Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco Sept. 12-14 is another show by politicians and powerful people to pretend to find solutions for massive climate change. Global warming and Climate Disruption Global Warming – Heat: This July record-breaking heat waves were recorded throughout the world: in North and South America, Africa, Southern […]
Eugene Debs: A Socialist Example from the Past
The buildup to the November elections has begun. So far, the primary election results indicate that many people are turning towards the Democratic Party. People are rightfully fed up with Trump’s attacks on women, immigrants, the environment, and his disgusting personal behavior. We have also seen primary victories for some new candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez […]
Nia Wilson: Victim of a Violent Society
On the night of July 22nd, 18-year-old Nia Wilson and her 26-year-old sister Lahtifa were brutally attacked as they were waiting to transfer to a train at MacArthur BART in Oakland. John Lee Cowell walked up from behind and stabbed both sisters in the neck. As Nia bled to death in her sister’s arms, Lahtifa […]
Immigration: U.S. Policy Is A Disgrace
The new Republican immigration policy is a disgrace. Children and infants are separated from their parents and held in detention centers. Women fleeing domestic abuse and families fleeing gang violence are not considered eligible for asylum. The Democrats acted shocked and attacked Trump for these attacks. But attacking desperate people from other countries is not […]
Migrants yesterday, world champions today
All politicians, on the left, right, and far-right are saying it: “France cannot take in all the world’s poor.” And yet the players who gave France its second football world cup are, in part, descendants of “migrants.” A French team just like working class neighbourhoods. Millions of people celebrated the French team victory with their […]
Capitalism is the Problem
We live in a time of extreme contradictions. On the one hand, our civilization has eliminated smallpox, brought us cell phones, robotics, and space travel, and boasts immense resources and wealth. On the other hand, we face the worst crises in human history. We are experiencing a calamitous level of species extinction brought on by […]
A game of liar’s poker… always a losing hand for workers
On one side, Total, a giant oil corporation with 8.6 billion in profits last year, with dozens of refineries and fuel depots. On the other side, a few thousands rapeseed producers. Total intends to change its agrofuels composition by replacing rapeseed oil with palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia. Tom Thumbs against Goliath? Not that […]
Profits for the 1%, or a Fight for Our Future?
Scientists around the world agree we must stop drilling and using fossil fuels to make the economy run. If not we face the end of life on our planet, as we know it. Nature is proving that the scientists’ warnings are true, with record high temperatures, massive storms, flooding, and wildfires. Ocean warming and drought […]
Abortion rights in Ireland: Advances in women’s issues are advances for all workers
On May 25th, over 66% of Irish people voted to legalise abortion. This is a historical victory for Irish women. But they will have to make sure that the bill legalising abortion up to 12 weeks is passed. There is reason to celebrate, after all those years of illegal abortions in dangerous conditions, or paying […]
NFL Owners Won’t Dictate Our Lives!
The NFL issued a new policy in its latest attempt to stop players from engaging in protests against racial inequality and police brutality. According to the new rule, the League will fine teams if players on the field “do not stand and show respect for the flag and the anthem.” As if it is somehow […]
Competitive manoeuvring, and real wars against peoples
Like the frog that believed it could be big as an ox, Macron patted himself on the back for tempering Donald Trump by proposing to revise the Iranian nuclear agreement, rather than tearing it. It failed. On May 8th, Trump announced the US backed out of the agreement and renewed economic sanctions against Iran. The […]
Workers Of The World Unite!
Karl Marx was born 200 years ago on May 5th, and his birthday was celebrated all over the world. Why is he still remembered? Why do politicians and journalists who defend the capitalist system continue to attack him? They are still trying to bury Marx, but his socialist ideas are as relevant today as ever. […]
Teachers on the March – The Strikes Spread
The successful West Virginia Teachers Strike in March has inspired walkouts and demonstrations by school teachers and staff in other states, and strikes in Oklahoma and Arizona. Education workers are demanding increased funding for school programs their students need as well as pay raises. Oklahoma The Oklahoma government has cut the education budget by 16% […]
France: Railroad Workers Lead the Way
Tens of thousands of workers demonstrated across France on May Day protesting the policies of the government and their rightwing president, former investment banker Emanuel Macron. Since Macron’s election a year ago, his government has attacked the rights of workers, retirees, immigrants, and students, trying to cut jobs, reduce social services and end protections that […]
Young People Challenge the Violence of Society
Future history books may recall 2018 as the year of the students’ uprising against violence. We have for many years endured mass murders in the U.S. by gunfire especially, but also bombings and vehicles used as weapons. But with the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, something changed. […]
Colin Kaepernick: His Silence Will not be Bought
Ever since San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, became a free agent in 2017, he hasn’t been signed by any NFL team. For months Kaepernick and his lawyer, along with many NFL players and sports journalists, have claimed that Kaepernick has been blacklisted for his protest against police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem. […]
Palestine: Gaza in the Crosshairs
Since March 30, Palestinians living in the Gaza strip have staged demonstrations against their treatment at the hands of Israel. Gaza is home to nearly two million people, living in a region smaller than Los Angeles. Along with the West Bank, Gaza has been occupied militarily by Israel since 1967. Gaza is home to hundreds […]
We won’t get pushed around!
“We’re angry railway workers, and we won’t get pushed around!” chanted the Parisian strikers who had gathered, on May 7th, in two Paris train stations. These demonstrations, which lasted the whole afternoon, despite the cops’ attacks with batons and tear gas, sent a clear message: railway workers are not fooled by the prime minister manoeuvres […]
1968 – Be Realistic, Demand the Impossible!
There are certain years that are pivotal in history, when cataclysmic changes in consciousness take place and this paradigm shift spreads contagiously.
Time To Reclaim Our Day – May Day!
May 1st or May Day, is known as International Workers Day throughout the world. Despite the U.S. ruling class’s efforts to hide our history from us, it is our holiday. That is, it’s our day to celebrate our history, our struggles, our future, and our class, the working class. In the late 1800’s workers were […]
Another world is possible
The government says there is no money. We need to save on personnel in hospitals and schools. We must accept job insecurity and the end of railway workers special status. At the same time, they go to war in Syria, spending €1.15 billion in new missiles, and pretend to save the world. What does he […]
The Attack on Syria: Total Hypocrisy!
On Friday night, the U.S. military, along with the French and British military, launched about 118 missiles into Syria. These strikes, flagrant and completely unnecessary acts of aggression, do nothing to help the people of Syria or end the years of war they have suffered under. The strikes could increase the potential of major military […]
This is just a start…!
SNCF, Carrefour, Air France, Universities, all together: This is just a start…! 300 Carrefour supermarkets on strike last weekend, strikes planned at Air France, universities occupied by students against the social selection plan for university admissions. And of course, the SNCF strikes will have a very good turnout, matching railway workers’ anger. In all industries, […]
Stop the U.S. War Machine!
The U.S. war machine is in constant motion, from troops on the ground in Syria, to aircraft carriers on maneuvers in the South China Sea. The U.S. military maintains nuclear weapons poised and ready to unleash “fire and fury”, as Trump said in a threat to North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un. At the back of all […]
The Strike in West Virginia – An Example for us All
On Thursday, February 22, teachers in two of West Virginia’s fifty-five counties walked out. By Monday, March 1, schools shut down state-wide. Thousands of teachers and staff rallied in Charleston demanding raises and protesting increases in healthcare premiums. Eight days later, the Republican-dominated state government capitulated, granting a 5% raise to all state employees. The […]
Trump’s Budget Declares War at Home and Abroad
The Trump administration’s budget for 2019 is a declaration of war on poor and working people all over the world and in the U.S. The $4.4 trillion budget proposes a combination of further increases in military spending, more tax cuts to the super rich, and cuts to working families and the poor – all in […]
Martin Luther King Jr., April 1968 and Our Struggle Today
In early April 1968, fifty years ago this month, Martin Luther King, Jr. was in Memphis to support the sanitation workers’ strike. The workers – almost all of them African American – had been on strike since February 12, demanding higher wages, safer working conditions, and union recognition. Two workers died on February 1 when […]
Baltimore Police: The System is Corrupt
The Gun Trace Task Force of the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) was a special unit organized officially to get guns off the streets and prevent violence. But eight of the nine members of the Task Force were charged with a variety of crimes. Six pleaded guilty and two others were convicted of crimes, including […]
Film Review: Black Panther
Black Panther is a big budget superhero film written and directed by Ryan Coogler and actor Michael B. Jordan. Black Panther is the story of the superhero king of Wakanda, an isolated but wealthy African nation that hides its existence. Through the story, the Black Panther is confronted with a question: should Wakanda stay hidden […]
The Future Is In Our Hands!
Today millions of people across this country have joined together to say “No more violence in our schools.” and “No more violence in our communities.” We are all here because students at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida refused to remain silent after the murder of 17 people at their school. If […]
A Society Based On Violence!
We are right to question the violence of our society, where mass shooting and brutality have become accepted as normal. The system of capitalism values human life and the planet only as resources to be exploited and profited from, creating wealth only for those in positions of power. Their entire system is organized violence against […]
This is just a start!
With the arrogance of an ex-business banker, Macron has led attack after attack against workers since his election. He now attacks railway workers head-on, hoping to break their fighting spirit and demoralise the whole working class, like Thatcher did with the miners in the UK. There is just one problem, railway workers have decided not […]
All on strike on March 22nd, to begin a general fight
There were a lot of retirees out on March 15th. Tens of thousands of them in the country took to the streets, to protest against decreased pensions, together with retirement home employees. They have been called “privileged” persons by Macron, who explains that since they aren’t all poor, they can pay. An MP who supports […]
There Is Hope When We Stand Up For Ourselves
In response to the brutal murders of 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida, the whole community responded in shock and outrage. The students took the lead, saying that they were going to make sure that such a tragedy never happened in another school. They organized memorials and rallies and spoke out on […]
The Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian workers led the people of Russia in an effort to build a better world, and they reached out to help the rest of the international working class to do the same
The Paris Commune, 1871: When the Working Class Seized Power for the First Time
In 1871 the workers of Paris were “ready to storm heaven.”
The Strike at River Rouge: Detroit 1941
In 1941, tens of thousands of auto workers at the Ford River Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan, overcame many obstacles to build a union from the bottom up
Parkland Students – We Won’t Go Back to Normal!
Students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida returned to school two weeks after a 19-year old former-student gunned down 17 people there. Most of the students said they were ready to return, but promised they would not let things “go back to normal.” Over the past weeks, many of the students have […]
Voting for the Democrats is a Dead End!
The first year of the Trump administration was one outrage after another. We’ve seen the deportation of immigrant workers, the assault on a woman’s right to control her body, the repeal of basic environmental protections, a tax cut for billionaires, a budget that further slashes social services, and threats of nuclear war with North Korea. […]
Supreme Court: Ready to Undermine Unions
On February 26, the U.S. Supreme Court began hearing the case Janus v. AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers). The case is about whether public sector unions should be able to collect money from all the workers they represent, not just those who have joined the union. Unions represent everyone in a […]
Baltimore Schools: Unfit for Our Children!
Public schools across Baltimore City had to close in early January because their heating systems couldn’t deal with the winter weather. Despite Maryland’s chronic underfunding of Baltimore schools according to the state’s own formula, the governor suddenly found $2.5 million to address the problem and hundreds of workers labored over the weekend to fix the […]
NY/NJ Transit: A Real Trainwreck!
For the past decade, transit riders in the New York-New Jersey area have become increasingly frustrated on their daily rides to and from work. Under severe cuts, transit services have declined while prices have increased across the board. For decades, the New York City subway system (MTA) and the New Jersey PATH interstate train used […]
Nabi Saleh, Palestine – An Example of Defiance
On December 15, a 16 year old girl, Ahed Tamimi, confronted Israeli soldiers who stormed into Nabi Saleh, her village in Palestine. Ahed’s cousin Mohammed had been shot in the head, a nearly fatal wound. Ahed slapped one of the soldiers, for which she has been arrested and remains in jail, already having spent her […]