Bernie Sanders: Workers should control the means of production

by Mark Gruenberg

People’s World | May 30, 2019

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., greets workers during a rally at the University of California Los Angeles, on March 20, 2019. Sanders’ campaign for the presidency has taken an even more social democratic turn with his proposals for worker ownership of firms and putting workers on the boards of companies. | Richard Vogel / AP

WASHINGTON—Now Bernie Sanders is really beginning to sound like a socialist on the presidential campaign trail—and nobody’s batting an eyelash.

The Vermont Independent, who has proclaimed himself a democratic socialist even before he was mayor of Burlington, Vt., and long before entering Congress, continued his campaign to win widespread union support for next year’s Democratic nomination by saying he will propose workers take ownership of individual plants and businesses, removing them from the hands of the bosses and financiers who back them.

Oil workers move to reclaim power for the people in Iraq

by David Bacon

People’s World | May 28, 2019

Iraqi oil worker. | David Bacon

As millions of people marched against the invasion of Iraq in the early 2000s, many carried signs pointing an accusing finger at Dick Cheney and Halliburton – “No Blood for Oil!”  But seeing that oil was a motivating factor for the war did not necessarily mean that people understood much about Iraq as a country, the role oil plays in its national life, or about the workers who pump it from the ground and refine it.

In 2013 I went to Baghdad with a longshore union leader, Clarence Thomas, to learn how the occupation was affecting Iraq’s workers and unions.  I documented factory life, and took photographs and talked with workers in the Daura oil refinery.  There I began to see oil’s central role in Iraq’s life.  I realized that further documentation meant going to southern Iraq, where most of the industry is located.

Strike wave 1919: The radical forerunners of the CPUSA

by David Cavendish

People’s World | May 17, 2019

Striking steel mill workers holding bulletins in Chicago, Illinois, September 22, 1919.

Throughout history, wars have had profound impact on human society. Not only does territory often change hands, but there are often great changes in political structures and systems, social upheaval, and economic dislocation. World War I is a prime example.

Not only did more than 15 million people die, but the cost of the war, by some estimates, reached more than $300 billion (the equivalent of $4.5 trillion today), and four major empires—the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian—disappeared from the face of the earth. It’s the fourth, the Russian, that interests us in this story.

Defying threats, workers in Sudan ready to embark on a two-day general strike

by Pavan Kulkarni

Peoples Dispatch | May 27, 2019

Workers sign the Revolutionary Attendance Notebook to join the strike and call for an end to military rule. Photo: Facebook

Employees of public and private companies across the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors in Sudan are set to go on a two-day political general strike on May 28 and 29, demanding a transition to civilian rule.

The military junta’s vice president warned that all workers participating in the strike will be fired and replaced with other staff who have already been arranged for. Despite the threats, employees of various government ministries have responded positively to the strike call given by the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which has been spearheading the mass demonstrations that forced Omar al-Bashir of out presidency.

UK: ‘If a bailout was good enough for bankers, why isn’t it good enough for us,’ steelworkers ask

by Marcus Barnett

Morning Star | May 22, 2019

Workers leave the steelworks plant in Scunthorpe following a shift change as owner British Steel is to go into official recievership after failing to secure funds for its future

LEADERS in the labour movement are urging the government to nationalise British Steel, as steelworkers ask: “if a bailout is good enough for bankers, why isn’t it good enough for us?”

Labour’s shadow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey told the Tories to intervene after the company’s compulsory liquidation was announced this morning.

Lessons from the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike

by Hassan Yussuff

Peoples’ World | May 16, 2019

A crowd attempts to tip over a tramway car during the Winnipeg General Strike, June 21, 1919. | Library and Archives Canada

May and June mark the 100th anniversary of the Winnipeg General Strike. Beginning May 15, 1919, workers fed up with their misery on and off the job and inspired by the example of the Russian Revolution rose up and took over the Canadian city of Winnipeg, Manitoba for six weeks. Though it was eventually violently put down by the Canadian Mounties on what became known as “Bloody Saturday,” the strike proved that society could function without bosses. The period of militant labor fightback and radical activism would continue. Two years later, the Communist Party of Canada was founded. The article below commemorating the strike’s centennial is by Hassan Yussuff, head of the Canadian Labour Congress.

‘We Will Not Be Complicit’: Protesting Assault on Yemen, Italian Dock Workers Refuse to Load Saudi Weapons Vessel

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

Common Dreams | May 21, 2019

Protesters and workers on strike prevent a Saudi ship Bahri Yanbu, that was prevented by French rights group ACAT from loading a weapons cargo at the French port of Le Havre due to concerns they might be used against civilians in Yemen, from loading cargo at the Port of Genoa, Italy May 20, 2019. (Photo: Massimo Pinca/Reuters)

In an act of defiance against Saudi Arabia’s brutal assault on Yemen—which is being carried out with the support of the United States and European nations—Italian union workers on Monday refused to load a Saudi vessel reportedly filled with weapons that could be used to fuel the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

“We will not be complicit in what is happening in Yemen,” union leaders said in a statement.

According to Reuters, dockworkers attempted to have the Saudi ship—officially called the the Bahri Yanbu—barred from entering the Port of Genoa.