The Year The Unions Kept Us Strong

WORKERS’ STRUGGLE

Pavan Kulkarni

People’s Dispatch | December 31, 2020

Community health workers in India blockade a road during the historic strike on November 26. Source Newsclick

[Peoples Dispatch brings you a series of articles and videos on 2020, a momentous year that saw humanity face unprecedented challenges. The beacon of hope remained the historic resistance mounted by people’s movements, and the care and solidarity they epitomized, proving yet again that our collective struggles alone can dismantle and end oppression. You can read the full series here]

From the over 1,100 strikes in the US, averaging over three a day, to history’s largest known general strike witnessed in India, labor actions across continents in 2020 demonstrated the firm refusal of the working class to passively accept on to its shoulders the burden of an unprecedented economic that has been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amid Increased Violence, Colombians Mobilize in Defence of Life and Peace

STRUGGLE FOR PEACE IN COLOMBIA

Tanya Wadhwa

People’s Dispatch | November 02, 2020

The Humanitarian Caravan for Life and Defense of Territory in the Cañón del Micay, carried out by social movements from the Cauca department, reached the El Plateado village on November 1. Photo: Colombia Informa

Mobilizations to demand an end to escalating violence in Colombia against social movements and political activists have intensified in recent days. Social movements have converged in the Cauca department as part of a Humanitarian Caravan, while ex-combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), today part of the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force party, have been marching in the Pilgrimage for Life and Peace. Organizations are demanding that the government take measures to stop the increase in violence and protect the life and integrity of citizens.

French unions set to intensify struggle as Macron bypasses parliament on pension reforms

Peoples Dispatch | March 06, 2020

Trade unions have been protesting the French government’s pension reforms since July 2019. (Photo: Romain Lafabregue/ AFP)

French trade unions and workers’ organizations are preparing for further struggles after president Emmanuel Macro’s government decided to bypass parliament to put into place the controversial pension reforms.

On March 3, Tuesday, the French government opted to use article 49.3 of the constitution to take this route and approve the pension reforms proposed by Macron. Workers in the country have been protesting the controversial reforms since they were proposed in July 2019. Outraged French trade unions staged a protest on Tuesday against the government’s move. The opposition parties have also moved two motions to censure the use of article 49.3 which allows the government to unilaterally pass financial or social security bills without consulting the parliament.

Ten poetry books that illuminate a decade’s struggles

by Chris Butters

People’s World | January 15, 2020

Occupy Wall Street. The Peoples Climate March. The Women’s March. Black Lives Matter. The ongoing mobilizations to defeat Trump and the extreme right that supports him.

As we marched and organized against injustice, poets, often marching right alongside us, were creating enduring works of literary art that spoke to the struggle and the times we live in.

As a new generation took to the streets between 2010-19, poetry increased in popularity, whether reading poetry of social consciousness in traditional forms, or through hiphop rhymes and rhythms, going viral on social media.

India: The Honda Manesar plant contract workers’ one-month long ongoing struggle: significance, possibilities, and challenges

GroundXero | December 12, 2019

More than 1500 contract workers of Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) Manesar plant in Haryana have been in a one-month long militant struggle against retrenchment that began from 5^th November 2019. A report by Mazdoor Sahyog Kendra, Gurgaon (Workers Solidarity Centre, Gurgaon), on this struggle of contract workers’.

 

More than 1500 contract workers of Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) Manesar plant in Haryana have been in a one-month long militant struggle against retrenchment that began from 5^th November 2019. Under the pretext of economic slowdown, the Honda management retrenched around 650 contract workers on 4^th November. From 5^th November, those retrenched started a sit-in dharna outside the factory gate, and nearly 1000 workers started a sit-in strike inside the plant. The management initially tried to run the production on 5^th November with the help of the permanent workers, but during the course of the day, only around 100 two-wheelers were manufactured. And even then, those cars had faults and needed repairing. The management ultimately declared temporary shutdown of production from 11^th November. The striking contract workers remained inside, occupying the plant. And, that was the peak of the struggle.

Venezuelans Gather Eight Million Signatures Against US Blockade

teleSUR | September 01, 2019

The number of signatures against the U.S. blockade has been achieved in record time | Photo: AVN

The signing of the document is part, along with marches and protests, of the global ‘No More Trump’ campaign

At least eight million Venezuelans added their signatures to a document rejecting the U.S. blockade, which will be presented to the United Nations, according to official reports.

Fight Corruption, Stop Impunity New Plan for Mexican Govt: AMLO

teleSUR | September 01, 2019

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador delivers his first state of the union at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, September 1, 2019. | Photo: Reuters

“If you ask me to express in one sentence what the new government’s plan is all about: end corruption and impunity,” AMLO said.

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, reiterated Sunday during the first official state of the union that the main plan for his government is to end corruption and impunity, two of the main wrongs that have affected the country in recent decades and undermined its economic development.

Looking back to move forward: The first Pan-African Cultural Festival in Algeria, 1969

by Abayomi Azikiwe

Pambazuka News | August 31, 2019

Pan-African Cultural Festival

Five decades ago thousands gathered in Algiers to recommit to revolutionary transformation around the world.

Fifty years ago, this year from 21-31 July 1969 in the capital of Algeria, thousands of people gathered for a ground-breaking Pan-African Cultural Festival (PACF).

Official delegations were sent to the manifestation from over 30 independent and contested nations on the African continent. A strong contingent of artists, intellectuals, journalists and political activists from the United States were also in attendance.

Communist Party USA: 100 years in struggle for peace, democracy, socialism

by PEOPLE’S WORLD EDITORIAL BOARD

Scenes and personalities from the Communist Party’s 100-year history. | Photos from People’s World and CPUSA Archives

One hundred years ago this weekend, on Sept. 1, 1919, 128 women and men, meeting in a hall in Chicago, founded the Communist Party of America. In their founding Manifesto, the members declared:

“The world is on the verge of a new era. Europe is in revolt. The masses of Asia are stirring uneasily. Capitalism is in collapse. The workers of the world are seeing a new life and securing new courage. Out of the night of war is coming a new day…. The class war rages fiercely in all nations. Everywhere the workers are in a desperate struggle against their capitalist masters. The call to action has come. The workers must answer the call!”

Live Updates: FARC Party Affirms Goal of Peace in Colombia

teleSUR | August 29, 2019

Commanders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and now members of the political party Revolutionary Alternative Common Force (FARC), attend a news conference in Bogota, Colombia August 29, 2019 | Photo: Reuters

More than 90 percent of former combatants remain in the peace process, said FARC president Rodrigo Londoño.

 

Update: Colombia’s President, Ivan Duque condemned the actions of the minority faction of the FARC and asked Interpol to step in while putting a bounty on information on those who have decided to take up arms. Duque also accused, without offering any proof, the government of Venezuela of being supportive of this faction. No mention was made of the inability of the government to provide security to social activists and former members of FARC who have been murdered since the signing of the Peace Agreement. He further announced the creation of a security detail in charge of tracking down the rebels. Finally, he stated that “Our message is clear: those who have opted for the path of legality under the principles of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition will continue to have the commitment of the State”