Category: Publications

US Midterm Elections: Different Parties, Same Tools

The midterm elections came and went last week without any surprises. As was expected, these elections were a reflection of a deep anger and disillusionment with Obama and the Democratic Party. Throughout the country, Democrats were voted out of offices and replaced by Republicans. And more than 30 million people who voted for the Democrats […]

Elections are a Dead End for Workers

Every two and four years the elections come to town like a big circus. For months, we hear on the radio, watch on TV, or read in the paper an endless stream of advertisements and speeches promoting one candidate or proposition over another. We are constantly bombarded with messages of how important it is to […]

Money For War ⎯ Attacks on Our Lives

Last Friday, another 400,000 secret documents about the US war in Iraq were leaked to the public through the website Wikileaks. These documents again show us the reality of this war. Among other things, the documents show that US soldiers handed over people it detained to the Iraqi police knowing that they would be tortured […]

France On Strike – Everyone Together!

From young to old, the French workers are fighting against the attacks of the government. The movement, in spite of intense opposition, and even police repression, continues to grow. Every week a new section of the population comes out in support of the movement, first the workers, then the high school students, then the university […]

France: Into the Streets All Together!

“What the legislature has done, the streets can undo!” This was the slogan on many banners in the huge demonstrations that have swept through all of France this past week. Workers from the public and private sector, workers from small cities and Paris – immigrant workers who are told they are illegal – all have […]

California’s Election Year Budget – An Old Bag of Tricks

Last Friday, state politicians finally voted on a state budget. The budget was due in July, but politicians took 100 extra days to pretend to deal with the state’s $19.1 billion deficit. Both Democrat and Republican politicians are telling us that this is a good budget because it closes the deficit without raising taxes or […]

Youth of America – Victims of a Brutal System

Young people in America are victims of a system that is denying them a future. What kind of education can a young person expect to get in a school system being slashed of funding, understaffed, and with inadequate resources? What kind of job can they expect to get when they reach adulthood and start looking […]

Workers Show Their Anger – in the U.S and Europe

On Saturday, October 2, tens of thousands of workers from all over the US., attended a rally for jobs, justice and peace in Washington D.C. The rally was organized by the big unions, civil rights, peace, social justice and ecology groups. It was an expression of anger against the politicians in Washington and in state […]

The Violence of This Society and the Cops Must Stop!

Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Black man, was murdered early in the morning on New Year’s Eve Day 2009. Johannes Mehserle, a BART cop, shot Grant in the back as he lay facedown on the BART platform. Hundreds of people witnessed the murder. By the next day, tens of thousands had viewed the videos of Grant’s […]

The Real Criminals Are Walking Free

Last week, eight city officials from Bell, California, including the mayor, were arrested and taken to jail on corruption charges. The officials are charged with stealing over $5.5 million from the city treasury. The accused city council members gave themselves $100,000 salaries and took $1.2 million in additional pay to attend fake meetings that lasted […]

War At Home and Abroad – Lies Can’t Hide Reality

On August 31, the Obama administration announced that the war in Iraq is ending, and the troops are being withdrawn. Then last week, the National Bureau of Economic Research declared that the recession ended in 2009. What could be more ridiculous? Iraqis are still dying, soldiers are still being sent to kill and be killed. […]

Poverty – The Flip-Side of Profit

Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau reported a massive increase in the federal poverty rate. In 2009, the number of people living below the official poverty line rose to 44 million, the largest number since the agency began keeping track 50 years ago. These numbers mean that one in every seven people in the U.S. […]

The Anniversary of 9-11: Nine Years Of Death, Destruction And War

The uproar over building an Islamic center a few blocks away from the site of the World Trade towers, combined with the threat of a Florida preacher to burn the Quaran, once again fanned the flames of fear, hatred and patriotism. For nine years, in the name of 9-11, the U.S has been at war […]

The Tea Party: A Grassroots Movement? Fed and Watered by Billionaires

For months now the media has been full of stories of the so-called Tea Party movement. Rallies of 200 were important enough to be featured on primetime news and the front page of the newspapers. This has all been built up over the last weeks with Glenn Beck’s attempt to eclipse the 1963 March on […]

What if Labor Had More Than a Day?

For many workers this past weekend was a rare moment to actually spend time with our friends and families. Labor Day means that we have an extra day to go camping, go fishing, have a BBQ, go to the park or just sit around with family and friends trying to recover from the endless days […]

Their System is a Violent Crime

With last week’s heat wave came a wave of violence and death. In San Jose, on the night of August 17, three teenagers were jumped while they were standing near their car. Two of them were stabbed. On August 19th, a 16 year-old boy from Richmond was shot and killed while he waited for a […]

Obama’s Iraq — Just a New Packaging for the Same Occupation

The Obama administration announced recently that troops in Iraq are withdrawing from the country and that the U.S. occupation of Iraq is finally ending after seven and a half years. But when we look at the reality of the U.S. presence in Iraq, it becomes clear that the Obama administration has no intention of actually […]

Hatred is a Powerful Distraction

If you’ve paid any attention to the news lately, you could not have avoided the manufactured hysteria surrounding the construction of a Muslim community center two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center. What used to be a Burlington Coat Factory building is scheduled to be a Muslim community center, modeled after buildings […]

Humans Have a Right to Marry Who We Please

Proposition 8 was passed in California in November, 2008. It ruled that marriage must be between a man and a woman, and thereby placed a ban on all same-sex marriages. But last Wednesday, August 4, a federal judge overturned California’s ban. The ruling does not immediately grant gays and lesbians the right to marry but […]

Afghanistan: Whose Hands Are Bloody?

Last week, 75,000 secret military documents exposing the brutal reality of the US war in Afghanistan were leaked to the public. These classified documents were released through Wikileaks, a website that publishes anonymous documents exposing corporate and government corruption. The documents give us a glimpse of what the US occupation of Afghanistan looks like. The […]

The War At Home and Abroad

The war on the people of Afghanistan has been raging since 2001. The war on Iraq has likewise gone on since 2003. Combined these wars are the longest ground war in U.S. history. These wars have caused intense suffering for the people of the Middle East.             At the same time the U.S. government and […]

Summertime Unemployment Blues

Summer usually brings the expectation of good times – when people can look forward to vacations, have time to spend with family and friends, time to kick back and relax. We try to use the summer to take a little more time to enjoy life. But, for many it isn’t happening like it should. Without […]

The News: Their Reality Not Ours

The news is giving us a distorted picture of reality. It is a picture which plays on fear, with a constant message behind every word – you are powerless. This couldn’t be clearer after the coverage of Johannes Mehserle’s trial and the demonstration in Oakland following the verdict. In the weeks leading up to the […]

The Corporate Media: Guilty Of Lying

The distorted news coverage of the trial of Johannes Mehserle is just one example of what the corporate media does on a regular basis: present us with a distorted picture of reality that helps serve the interests of those who run this society. Let’s look at the evidence: Exhibit A: The Iraq War – Sold […]

It WAS Murder!

The shocking verdict in the case of Johannes Mehserle, the BART cop who killed Oscar Grant, finally came down on Thursday, July 8. The jury decided to call the killing involuntary manslaughter, claiming Mehserle unintentionally killed Oscar Grant. Involuntary manslaughter is what a drunk driver would get if they accidentally killed somebody in a car […]

The Trial of Oscar Grant’s Killer – Justice Will Not Be Served

The verdict is about to come down in the case of Johannes Mehserle, the BART cop who killed Oscar Grant, as he was riding home on BART the morning of January 1, 2009. This is more than a murder trial. The system of police violence that rules the streets is being put on trial. This […]

Oscar Grant: What The Cameras Captured

Oscar Grant was just one of many young Black men shot by police officers in the US in 2008. The thing that makes his story different is that it was caught on camera and witnessed by hundreds of people. On December 31, 2008, the same night Grant was killed, 23 year-old Robbie Tolan was shot […]

Oakland: A Failed System Not A Failed City

Oakland faces a budget deficit of $31 million. The city has less money from property taxes and sales taxes, and is proposing to make significant cuts to police and fire departments, schools and other city workers, and also raise fees for residents. The budget problems of Oakland are not unique in any way. Many cities […]

The BP Oil Spill – Corporate Profits More Poisonous than Oil

The oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico continues to pour thousands and perhaps millions of gallons of oil into the waters of the Gulf. Almost as disgusting as this toxic destruction are the actions of the corporations and the Obama administration in the last weeks.  While the worst oil disaster in history is happening […]

BP’s Gulf Disaster: Business as Usual for the Oil Industry

The British Petroleum oil leak is the biggest oil-related disaster in history. But its size is the only thing that makes this disaster unique. Disregard for the environment and human life, the corrupt relationship between government and the oil company and the attempt to conceal the true scope of the disaster –that’s business as usual […]

The BP Oil Spill: Profits First, People Last

For seven weeks, millions of gallons of oil have been flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. British Petroleum, the oil company drilling the well when it exploded, refuses to allow accurate measurements of how much oil is leaking out. Official estimates are around 40,000 barrels per day while many scientists think it is as high […]

Israel’s Blockade of Gaza –A Brutal Act Condemned by the World

On Monday of last week, a fleet of humanitarian ships approached the Gaza strip, a 100 square mile territory occupied by the Israeli army, and home to 1.5 million Palestinians. The ships, organized by human rights groups from around the world, carried 10,000 tons of food, medicine, milk, cement and building supplies. The lead ship, […]

It Is Not Their World To Destroy!

For one month now millions of gallons of oil have poured into the Gulf of Mexico. An underwater oil well being drilled by British Petroleum exploded killing eleven workers and seriously injuring 17. After the explosion BP and the US government sprang into action – to protect the financial interests of the giant oil company. […]

California’s Budget – We’re Sick and Tired of the Crumbs

Last Friday, Governor Schwarzenegger announced his revised budget proposal, which looks a lot like the last several budget proposals. There is a pattern here: California politicians announce that the state did not bring in enough revenue in taxes, and so, they say, the only solution is to slash funding to every social service that we […]

The Gulf Oil Spill – The Work of Three Criminal Corporations

On April 20th, the Deepwater horizon, a British Petroleum (BP) oil rig off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and began spilling enormous quantities of oil into the waters of the gulf. The oil well is 5,000 feet deep and fifty miles off shore. In the explosion eleven workers were killed. Five million […]

Striking Flint

Remembering the 1936-37 General Motors Sit-Down Strike, Genora Johnson

Iraq: A History of Struggle Against Decades of Imperialism

download illustrated PDF of this pamphlet Iraq This pamphlet aims to tell at least a part of the history of Iraq in order to prove a few important points: Iraq is an old civilization with a people who have fought for their freedom and to have a better life for themselves and their children. The […]

Big Bill Haywood: A Giant in the Struggles of the Working Class

download illustrated PDF of this pamphlet Big Bill Haywood was one of the most important and colorful leaders of the U.S. working class. He was a leader of some of the most important labor battles from the 1890’s until the 1920s. He was born in 1869 in the Mormon frontier settlement of Salt Lake City, […]

The Seattle General Strike of 1919

The Seattle General Strike as recorded by the strikers, recounting the extraordinary story of the working people of an entire city coming together to run their city in their interests.

The Russian Revolution of 1917: Our Revolutionary Heritage

download PDF of this pamphlet In 1917 the workers of Russia carried out the first victorious socialist revolution. It was the first example of workers taking power consciously as a class. The Russian workers led the rest of the county in an effort to build a better world, and they reached out to help the […]

Mother’s Day – One Day Does Not Make It All OK

This past Sunday, more people in the U.S. usually go out to eat in restaurants than at any other time of the year. Why? Mother’s Day is when we are supposed to recognize the women in our lives, especially mothers. To eat out means to give many women a day off, at least a day […]

Immigrant Workers Are Not to Blame For This Crisis!

A horrific anti-immigration law (SB 1070) was passed last week in Arizona. Under the new legislation, local and state police officers will have the authority to stop anyone and demand identification, without a warrant All they need to do this is have a so-called “reasonable suspicion” that the individual is an immigrant without legal status. […]

Immigrants in the US: Worst Conditions, Worst Pay, Worst Treatment

Immigrants in the U.S. • The U.S. has always been a country of immigrants. The vast majority of people in the US are either immigrants themselves or the relatives of immigrants. • There are 38 million immigrants in the US, twelve percent of the total population. • There are 9.3 million immigrants who don’t have […]

We Are Over Taxed!

Tax (noun) – definition 1. an amount of money levied by a government on its citizens. 2. a strain or heavy demand. This system is over-taxing us. The government is taking our money at the federal, state and local levels. And the system is taxing us – putting a huge burden on us – emotionally […]

Another Mining Tragedy – Killing for Profit

The massive explosion in a mine in Montcoal, West Virginia last Monday, April 5th, killed 29 miners and left another miner in critical condition. These miners were fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons. Their deaths are a tragedy for their families and the community of Montcoal, who spent the past weekend at funerals, burying their loved […]

Healthcare Bill – Profit Care for the Insurance Companies!

Last week, Congress finally passed the healthcare bill it has been debating for months. People across the nation, especially those who have been without healthcare and those hard-hit by the economic crisis were hoping we would finally see a healthcare program that would cover us all. The Democrats and their supporters claim this is a […]

We Must Stop These Wars of Mass Destruction!

The U.S. war on Iraq is entering its eighth year. George Bush, with the agreement of all but one elected official, launched the war on the people of Iraq March 19, 2003. Since then an estimated one million Iraqis have died. Their country has been destroyed. During this war, close to 4400 US soldiers have […]

Iraq and Afghanistan – Nine Years of War

In October 2001, the U.S. Government began a war on the people of Afghanistan. Within two years war was carried to the people of Iraq as well. Today there are 200,000 U.S. Troops waging war in the Middle East – 137,000 in Iraq, 40,000 in Afghanistan and another 21,000 deployed after a recent decision by […]