May Day 2022 – Oppose imperialist wars

Farooque Chowdhury 

Countercurrents | May 01, 2022

Today is May 1, 2022, the May Day.

It’s workers’ day, working people’s day, working people’s international solidarity day. All divisive, sectarian, supremacist ideology and politics is opposed by the working people all around the world. On this day, this position is reiterated by the working people.

Today, this task – oppose divisive, sectarian, supremacist politics – is much urgent, much immediate, as imperialism is making onslaught in many forms, in direct and indirect ways, in concealed methods and forms, in lands after lands. Imperialism is today pushing one part of the people to oppose other parts. Imperialism is carrying out its nefarious act with nice slogans telling about its freedom and its democracy, slogans that hide class struggle, the struggle between the exploited and the exploiters. Imperialism is doing this dirty work by hiding the struggle between labor and capital.

But, the working people can’t be hoodwinked, can’t be confused, can’t be made pawn to capital; the working people can’t be pulled to the camp of capital; and today, imperialism, as the highest form, the most dangerous form of capital, can’t be ally of the working classes in no country. With long experience, expertise, enormous resources, command over natural and social sciences and over technology, owning the most powerful political-military-diplomatic-propaganda machine, having worldwide networks in many forms, imperialism today stands as the most dangerous class-force against all the peoples, all the working people of the world.

U.S.: Trouble in the Tulips: Organized Farmworkers Win Basic Demands in a Quick Strike

David Bacon

Labour Notes | March 30, 2022

Most of the tulip pickers also work seasonally at the state’s largest berry grower, where they won a union contract in a four-year fight through repeated strikes. So they’re experienced at direct action, and organized themselves quickly. Photo: Edgar Franks

MT. VERNON, WASHINGTON, March 28—Tulips and daffodils symbolize the arrival of spring, but the fields are bitterly cold when workers’ labors begin. Snow still covers the ground when workers go into the tulip rows to plant bulbs in northwest Washington state, near the Canadian border.

Once harvesting starts, so do other problems. When a worker cuts a daffodil, for instance, she or he has to avoid the liquid that oozes from the stem—a source of painful skin rashes.

Yes, the fields of flowers are so beautiful they can take your breath away, but the conditions under which they’re cultivated and harvested can be just as bad as they are for any other crop. “Tulips have always been a hard job, but it’s a job during a time of the year when work is hard to find,” says farmworker Tomas Ramon. “This year we just stopped enduring the problems. We decided things had to change.”

As Inflation Hits US Workers Hard, do Argentina and Venezuela Provide a Heterodox Toolbox to Confront It? (Part I)

Dakotah Lilly

Orinoco Tribune | March 30, 2022

Part I: Introduction
Inflation is currently a problem in the United States. It is not a problem in the classical sense that inflation has been weaponized as in the past; as a trojan horse against popular, socialist, or nationalist governments in favor of neoliberal adjustment plans. Instead, inflation is a problem in the United States because it exemplifies a ramping up of an aspect of a class based warfare tactic by the oligarchic establishment in order to continue raking in huge profits and an ever increasing share of the capital-labor pie. How do we know this? Well, we know there is general inflation that is further squeezing the wallets of the average working family because every single wage earning member of a family that is not of privilege will be the first to tell you that their wage is not going nearly as far as it was 1, 2, or 3 years ago. Not only this, but the US Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers for the Consumer Price Index puts inflation at its highest numbers in 40 years.

How Starbucks Workers Won in Mesa

Saurav Sarkar

Labor Notes | March 05, 2022

Starbucks workers from a Mesa, Arizona store celebrated their union win alongside local members of Workers United’s Western States Regional Joint Board. Photo: WSRJB Workers United SEIU

Starbucks Workers United (SWU) won its third store election February 28 in Mesa, Arizona. The vote was an overwhelming 25-3, with three additional contested ballots, despite heavy anti-union pressure from the company and in a state with only 5.4 percent union density.

“We led with kindness and care and just did our jobs in the face of union-busting from upper management,” said shift supervisor Liz Alanna, who helped lead the effort. Shift supervisors coordinate the day-to-day running of a store but are eligible for union membership because they don’t have hiring and firing power.

The Mesa store at Powerline and Baseline Roads became the first U.S. company-run store outside Buffalo to be unionized in the recent organizing wave.

WFTU NEW YEAR 2022 MESSAGE

World Federation of Trade Unions | December 27, 2021

Dear colleagues,

Another year is coming to an end. Another year is added to the history of the WFTU and the world class-oriented movement. Another year made us cry and laugh, without losing not even for a moment our optimism for the best days to come for our class, thanks to our struggle and our firm political perception.

Making a brief assessment, as is usual at the end of each year, we will see that some things are repeated monotonously, but also new things are born, filling us with optimism for the future of the working class and popular strata.

In 2021, the inadequacy of this system to provide a solution to vital issues of humanity was revealed even more strongly. It was revealed that no matter how tearful the speeches of the political servants of the great multinationals are, they are not at all interested in the life and prosperity of the poor, the workers and the peasants, the women and the youth.

WHAT HAS 2021 MEANT FOR THE LABOR MOVEMENT in U.S.? THREE UNION ORGANIZERS DISCUSS

From the Great Resignation to ‘Striketober’ and ‘Strikesgiving,’ 2021 has been a pivotal year for workers and the labor movement, but there’s still a lot of work to do in 2022. We talk to three union organizers about the task ahead.

Maximillian Alvarez

The Real News Network | December 29, 2021

2021 was an energizing year for a labor movement that has had its back against the wall for a long time. From record numbers of American workers voluntarily quitting their jobs to publicly supported strikes and unionization drives in different sectors of the economy, more and more working people are taking action and standing up for themselves. But this is just the beginning—there’s still a lot of work to do, and 2022 will provide a crucial test for the labor movement and its supporters. In this special panel episode of Working People, originally published in November as a bonus episode for patrons, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez talks to three full-time union organizers—Puja Datta (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), Margaret McLaughlin (United University Professions), and Diana Hussein (UNITE HERE)—about what Striketober and 2021 in general have meant for the labor movement. They also discuss the day-to-day work of being a union organizer and what people around the country can do to build working-class power.

USA: No more workers’ blood for the profits of the bosses!

In Defense of Communism | December 17, 2021

More than 90 people were killed in several states across the U.S. after tornadoes and heavy rains hit the region. Among them are six employees at AMAZON warehouse in St. Louis, Illinois, were roof collapsed and eight workers at a candle factory in Kentucky. 

In a statement, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and its militant trade unions across the world pledge “to continue the struggle for all necessary measures to protect workers from natural disasters and extreme weather events, measures that the US do not take because they consider them as a “cost”. 

U.S.: Amazon Warehouse Workers Fight to Form Union

POLITSTURM.COM | October 23, 2021

Amazon workers at the Staten Island, New York Fulfillment Center are preparing to file for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. As previously reported, workers at this location have already brought a lawsuit against Amazon with respect to working conditions and hazards, which was subsequently dismissed. Now, workers are preparing to unionize at this location. 

Amazon has taken actions to dissuade unionization by reportedly confiscating pro-union literature and distributing anti-union flyers. The company has also slandered an organizer who was fired from the location due to his unionization effort. A leaked memo described organizer and former warehouse employee Christian Smalls as “not smart or articulate”. 

U.S.: Over 10,000 John Deere Employees Strike

POLITSTURM | October 13, 2021

Over 10,000 John Deere union employees are going on strike after failing to conclude a collective bargaining agreement. UAW is stating the the company would not come to an agreement over pay, retirement benefits, and improvements in working conditions for the workers. 

“Our members at John Deere strike for the ability to earn a decent living, retire with dignity and establish fair work rules,” said Chuck Browning, Vice President of UAW Agricultural Implement Department.

U.S.: Kellogg Cereal Production Plants Are On Strike

POLITSTURM | October 09, 2021

Kellogg workers across the United States are striking in response to a reduction of benefits and cost-of-living wage increases. The company has also proposed moving production lines from the U.S. to Mexico and implementing a two-tiered employment system.

According to the Bakery and Confectionery Workers International Union of America representing the workers, the proposed system would have new hires making less in wages and would not have the ability to receive a pension. Also, 30% of the current workforce would pay higher costs for healthcare and would lose access to retirement benefits.