Labor Radicalism Alive & Well in U.S., Smith Says (tags)
Author and activist Sharon Smith came to San Diego to speak to Occupy San Diego's Labor Solidarity Committee, the International Socialist Organization (ISO) and other community members September 1, but it was her unannounced co-speaker -- a teachers' union activist from Chicago identified only as Becca -- who galvanized the crowd. Smith used the Chicago teachers' union struggle as an example that radical labor activism in the U.S. is alive and well despite decades of repression from the ruling class.
May Day Strike Against the War Shuts Down All U.S. West Coast Ports (tags)
On May 1, every port on the West Coast of the United States was shut down to demand an end to the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The historic May Day walkout by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is the first time ever that an American union has struck against a U.S. war. The union ranks defied the rulings of an arbitrator, who twice ordered them to go to work. They overcame the capitulations of the ILWU leadership, which didn't want the work stoppage in the first place, tried to water it down and cowered before the threats of legal action while waving the flag. The employers' Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) declared the May 1 port shutdown an "illegal strike." But after all the huffing and puffing from the bosses' mouthpieces, the dock workers pointed the way to defeating the imperialist war by mobilizing working-class power. In the end, it was more than a work stoppage. The dock workers' May Day strike against the war was a first step, a show of what it will take to bring down the warmongers in Washington. Their "symbolic" action was felt all the way to Iraq, where dock workers in two ports stopped work in solidarity with the ILWU. But it was only a beginning. What is needed is not only industrial action but a political offensive against the Democrats and Republicans, the partner parties of American imperialism, to build a class-struggle workers party.
Daniel Ellsberg: “Bush is Dangerous. He has to Go!” (tags)
Daniel Ellsberg of “Pentagon Papers” fame was one of the riveting speakers at an event at the National Press Club, in Washington, D.C., held on Jan. 4, 2007. It was sponsored by the World Can’t Wait organization. Ellsberg said that President George W. Bush and V.P. Dick Cheney have to go. He labeled Bush “dangerous!” He urged activists to push for a two pronged Congressional strategy: First, to cut off all funding for the Iraqi War; and, secondly, to investigate the serial crimes of the Bush-Cheney Gang.
To spoil or not to spoil in '04? (tags)
"It's decision time for those of us inhabiting that lonely corner of the Nolan Chart where dope and porn elicit almost as much enthusiasm as capital gains tax cuts."
The Great Myth of US Benevolence (tags)
A few thoughts about the reluctance of many Americans to accept the realities of US imperialism.
How anti-war protest movements have made the U.S. stronger. By David Greenberg Posted Wednesday, March 26, 2003, at 12:32 PM PT