Tag Archives: Trade Unions

Claudia Jones: Marxist Pioneer of Black and Proletarian Feminism

claudia-jonesClaudia Jones was born in Trinidad in1915 but migrated to Harlem in 1924. She became active in the Scottsboro struggle. She became a leader of the Comunist Party in the 1940’s, until she was indicted under the Smith Act (under which teaching Marxism was illegal) and imprisoned in 1955. She was then deported to London, where she lived and worked until her death 1965. She was buried beside of Karl Marx.

To get an idea of her importance, read her article, “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Women” (PDF), which analyzed the situation of black women from a Marxist viewpoint, and which was her major contribution to feminist thought.

The Struggle for Education Rights: UC Walkouts Show the Way

58470679Fight Back! is circulating the following editorial written by Josh Sykes for the Student Commission of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Thousands of union workers, faculty, undergrads and graduate students across the University of California system stood up and said “no more!” to the severe budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs and tuition hikes. On Sept. 24, they stood up and walked out. The UC faculty initiated the walkout. The United Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE) union called a one-day unfair labor practices strike. All ten of the UC campuses saw protests. UCLA saw 1000 students walkout and sit-in at the administration offices, demanding, and winning, a meeting with the chancellor to discuss grievances. At UC-Berkeley over 5000 took the streets, shutting down busy intersections. Students at UC-Santa Cruz occupied a campus building to protest the cuts.

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Colombia: Eyewitness report from solidarity delegation

Angela Denio in the Colombian countryside

Angela Denio in the Colombian countryside

The following article is from Fight Back! News:

Colombia: Eyewitness report from solidarity delegation
By Angela Denio

In August, a delegation of U.S. students, trade unionists and anti-war activists traveled to Colombia to meet with leaders in the struggle there. The Colombian Action Network and the Campaign for Labor Rights, two grassroots organizations here in the United States fighting against U.S. intervention in Colombia, hosted the trip.

“I knew what I heard in the U.S. media about the benefits of U.S. tax money and aid to Colombia was true only for the rich. I wanted to see for myself what the reality is for Colombians,” said Jeremy Miller, a member of the Colombian Action Network when explaining his decision to go on the delegation. Members of the Colombian Action Network and the Campaign for Labor Rights arranged meetings with peasant, indigenous and student groups, as well as with political leaders, unions, political prisoners and families of Colombians killed or imprisoned by the government.

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Happy Labor Day!

See also: Build a Fighting Workers Movement by the Labor Commission of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization

CPC News: Chinese, U.S. trade unions seek closer ties

The following is from the website of the Communist Party of China:

Wang Zhaoguo (R), president of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), meets with Anna Burger, president of Change to Win, and head of the visiting U.S. union leaders delegation, in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 26, 2009. Change to Win is a coalition of U.S. unions representing 6 million workers. (Xinhua/Liu Jiansheng)

Wang Zhaoguo (R), president of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), meets with Anna Burger, president of Change to Win, and head of the visiting U.S. union leaders delegation, in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 26, 2009. Change to Win is a coalition of U.S. unions representing 6 million workers. (Xinhua/Liu Jiansheng)

China’s top trade union leader, Wang Zhaoguo, and a group of visiting U.S. union leaders Wednesday agreed to explore new ways to cooperate.

Wang told Anna Burger, president of Change to Win, a coalition of U.S. unions representing 6 million workers, that Chinese trade unions hoped to strengthen cooperation with Change to Win based on independence, equality, mutual respect and non-interference in each other’s affairs.

“Trade unions around the world should cement exchanges and cooperation amid the global economic downturn, to better safeguard the interests of workers and promote global economic development,” said Wang, president of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) and a senior Chinese legislator.

Burger hoped to further enhance contacts and cooperation with the 100-million strong ACFTU through the week-long visit to China.

The U.S. union leaders arrived in Beijing Monday. Earlier Wednesday, they signed a memorandum with their ACFTU counterparts to facilitate exchanges and cooperation.

The two sides set up a regular exchange mechanism in May 2007 during Burger’s ice-breaking China tour, ending a decades-long boycott of China by U.S. labor groups.

Source: Xinhua

Chicago, October 3rd: “We Say Fight Back!” National Conference on Jobs, Income, Housing, and Justice

Click on the image for a PDF flyer for the conference

Click on the image for a PDF flyer for the conference

The following is the call to the “We Say Fight Back” conference, a very important national working class conference that will take place October 3rd in Chicago:

We are now in the midst of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Millions of homes are in foreclosure. Unemployment is growing. Massive cuts are taking place to the programs that benefit poor and working people, while the government tries to balance budgets on our backs. Inequality is growing, oppressed people–African-Americans, Chicanos, and Latinos are the last hired and the first to lose their jobs.

The rich and powerful are waging a war on working people and many of us have decided to respond by fighting back. In cities around the country there are sharp struggles to stop evictions and to demand a moratorium on home foreclosures. At places like Chicago’s Republic Windows and Doors there have been intense battles in response to plant closures. From California to New York, people have taken to the streets to protest cuts to programs that serve our communities.

On October 3, 2009, trade unionists, immigrant rights activists and members of low-income, community, housing, student and other progressive organizations will come together in Chicago for a conference that will help build our collective movements. We will take this opportunity to learn from one another’s experience. We will lend support to key struggles. Importantly, we will make common plans. Together we can make a difference and build a more powerful fight back.

Go to the Conference website for a list of endorsers and other important info: http://wesayfightback.com/

Jose Maria Sison: Tasks and prospects of workers of the world amid global financial and economic crisis

The following is from the International League of People’s Struggle:

_EUS6384_2Speech to the 25th International Solidarity Affair
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson, ILPS International Coordinating Committee

On behalf of the International Coordinating Coordinating Committee and member-organizations of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), I convey warmest greetings of solidarity to the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and to all the delegations to the 25th KMU International Solidarity Affair (ISA).

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No More Bank Bailouts! No to Phony ‘Nationalization!’

The following statement by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization is being reposted here from Fight Back! News Service.

Joe Isobaker of SEIU Local 73 at a rally outside worker-occupied Republic Windows & Doors back in December 2008

Joe Iosbaker of SEIU Local 73 at a rally outside worker-occupied Republic Windows & Doors back in December 2008

Recently the media has been abuzz with talk of the possible ‘nationalization’ of ailing big banks such as Citigroup. Both Democrat and Republican senators, as well as the former chair of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, have raised the possibility of a temporary ‘nationalization’ or government takeover of big banks.

Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) opposes ‘nationalization’ of banks by the present government. We stand with the majority of the American people who oppose more bank bailouts.

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Review: Build a Fighting Workers Movement

Click the image for a PDF pamphlet version

Click the image for a PDF pamphlet version

The following review of FRSO’s Build a Fighting Workers Movement  (also here at the Marxist-Leninist) is from Fight Back! News Service:

Review: Build a Fighting Workers Movement

A review of the pamphlet Build a Fighting Workers Movement by the Labor Commission of Freedom Road Socialist Organization

By Joe Iosbaker

This past Dec. 5, 250 workers occupied the Republic Windows and Doors factory on Goose Island in Chicago. They had been told a few days earlier that the company was closing and that there would be no severance pay, or even payment of wages or sick or vacation pay owed them. Their protest, targeting their company and the Bank of America, became a national symbol of working people’s anger at the rich and powerful. “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out,” they chanted as their story was reported across the world.

Now over three months later, there has been no wave of labor action in the U.S. to follow up this spectacular beginning. Why? Aren’t millions of workers just as angry? Don’t they want to strike blows against the billionaires on Wall Street?

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Sudan’s Trade Unions condemn western intervention

H. E Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir, President of the republic of Sudan

H. E Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir, President of the republic of Sudan

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Sudan Workers Trade Unions Federation on the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Sudanese president, Omar Hassan Al Bashir.

Sudan Workers Trade Unions Federation Statement

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Comrades, Honest workers of the world,
Free citizens of the world,

Today, the Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for the arrest of H. E Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir, President of the republic of Sudan. This precedent, which is the first of its kind, violates the sovereignty and independence of the states.

Sudan Workers Trade Unions Federation knows very well that this decision has nothing to do with the law, the justice and the humanity; rather, it is a political decision aiming at targeting a country saying No to the oppression powers. It is a conspiracy against a country paved its course of development, independence and glory, far away from the imperial domination and its aggression.

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