Class Struggle

Blacking Out The Yellow Vests On Cable News: Corporate Media Doing Its Job

December 13, 2018 Paul Street, Counterpunch.org Educate! Class Struggle, Corporate Media, France

The deletion of events that don’t fit with the reigning ideology is part of how ruling class-owned media works to manufacture mass consent to unjust hierarchy. I spent much of last week in a cable-television-equipped U.S.-American apartment with CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News at my fingertips. As I inhabited this abode, flicking between sports and cable news, a political crisis of the state was unfolding in one of the world’s richest and most powerful states. France was gripped by an historic working- and middle-class uprising. In the biggest popular unrest seen there since May of 1968, many hundreds of thousands of Gilets Jaunes (“yellow vests”) took to French roadways and other public space in their fourth straight week of explosive mass protests.

Sam Pizzigati: “A New Labor Activism Is Surging”

December 10, 2018 Mohsen Abdelmoumen, Ahtribune.com Resist! Class Struggle, Labor Movement

Sam Pizzigati: By the traditional benchmarks for measuring union strength, unions in the United States — particularly in the private sector — haven’t been as weak as they rate right now since the 1920s. Just 7 percent of workers in the private sector carry union cards. Across large swatches of the United States, these numbers suggest, private sector unions barely exist anymore. But these numbers don’t tell the full story. Outside of traditional labor structures, a new labor activism is surging, often supported by traditional unions. This new activism ranges from the “Fight for $15” movement’s struggle for a new labor wage minimum to the statewide teacher strikes that broke out in the United States last spring.

How The West Eats Its Children

December 10, 2018 By Thierry Meyssan, Voltairenet.org Educate! Capitalism, Class Struggle, France

International relations experienced a profound change with the paralysis of the Soviet Union in 1986, when the State was unable to control the civilian nuclear incident in Tchernobyl [1], then with the revocation of the Warsaw Pact in 1989, when the East German Communist Party [2] destroyed the Berlin Wall, and finally, with the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. At that time, the President of the United States, George Bush Sr., decided to demobilise one million soldiers and devote the efforts of his country to its own prosperity. He wanted to transform US hegemony within its zone of influence, and expand it into that of the leader of the world, the guarantor of world stability.

France’s “Yellow Vest” Protesters Brave Repression And Mass Arrests

December 10, 2018 Alex Lantier and Kumaran Ira, Wsws.org Resist! Arrest, Class Struggle, France, Protests

For the fourth consecutive Saturday, “yellow vest” (gilet jaunes) protestors demonstrated yesterday across France against the rightwing government of Emmanuel Macron. They did so in defiance of ominous threats of state violence and a massive mobilization of security forces. Clearly, the French President’s attempts to end the protests, first by postponing the gas tax hikes that set the movement into motion and then by canceling them outright, failed. The demands being raised—for social equality and against militarism and dictatorship—show that this is a movement directed towards the defense of workers’ interests, not just in France, but also internationally.

The Next Big Legal Case To Assassinate Unions Is On The Way

December 8, 2018 Hamilton Nolan, Splinternews.com Educate! Class Struggle, Unions

This summer, the Supreme Court gutted America’s public labor unions with the Janus ruling. Now, another case has the potential to further destroy the very basis of organized labor in America. This is serious. Uradnik v. Inter Faculty Org is a case brought by the right wing Buckeye Institute with the specific aim of dismantling a key part of U.S. labor law. The case seeks to end the practice of exclusive representation in public unions—the rule that a union represents all of the workers in a workplace. In the case, a college professor is arguing that the requirement that the union in her workplace negotiate on her behalf even if she does not want to be a union member is an infringement of her free speech.

What The ‘Yellow Vests’ Movement Tells Us About The Massive Level Of Discontent In France

December 7, 2018 By Marie Brunerie, Dcmediagroup.us Resist! Class Struggle, France, Protests, Workers Rights and Jobs

It all started three weeks ago when a social media-launched campaign against the announcement of a price hike on fuel turned viral and almost instantaneously rallied tens of thousands of people. “Enough is enough!” they cried out. The tax rise was aimed at injecting money into a climate-related support program. But, yet another tax increase was too hard to swallow for these working- and middle-class citizens who both feel–and objectively are–written off. Average citizens gathered at traffic circles in mass protests to show their despondency, all sporting the yellow safety vests required to be carried in every car. The vast majority of them were protesting for the very first time in their lives.

Where Does The Future Of The American Left Lie?

December 6, 2018 Rachel Gilmer, Aljazeera.com Strategize! Class Struggle, Left Politics, United States

Two weeks before the November 6 midterm elections, the White House released a special report by the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) on the opportunity costs of socialism in response to what they call its "comeback" in American political discourse. The timing of the report was no coincidence. Left-wing ideas such as universal healthcare, fully funded public education and the abolishment of ICE were at the forefront of midterm debates. And indeed, on November 6, American voters elected two socialist women of colour, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to Congress. Their historic wins are a true sign of shifting political terrains in the United States.

G20: You Can Smell Tear Gas In The Streets As The Oil Industry Squabbles

December 6, 2018 Globetrotter, Independentmediainstitute.org Educate! Class Struggle, G20, Oil, Tear Gas

Last week, two important meetings took place—one, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, of the Group of 20 (G20) nations, and two, in Vienna, Austria, of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other oil producers. The two meetings did not produce any resolution to the major economic challenges in the world. But they did soothe the nerves of financial markets. At the G20, the United States and China dialed down the temperature over trade but did not settle the long-term grievances each side has of the other. At the OPEC+ meeting, Russia and Saudi Arabia agreed to cut production and raise the price of oil despite pressure from the United States and others to keep oil prices low.

Self-Organized Yellow Vest Movement Threatens Macron Regime In France

December 4, 2018 Richard Greeman, Indypendent.org Resist! Class Struggle, France, Protests, Yellow Vest

Ignored by the president, distorted by the media, courted by the right, snubbed by the left, the self-organized mass movement known as the Yellow Vests is seriously challenging the political and economic order in France. In Paris, on the morning of Saturday, Dec. 1, as thousands of self-organized Yellow Vest protestors attempted to gather to express their grievances on the Champs-Elysées at a planned, peaceful demonstration, French riot police attacked them with tear-gas, flash-bombs and water cannons. By the end of the day, cars were burning near the Arc of Triumph, and all of Paris was in chaos. Groups of would-be peaceful marchers, joined by the usual casseurs (‘smashers’), spread throughout the capital, expressing their anger at the system and calling for the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron.

Third “Yellow Vest” Protest In France Defies Government Crackdown

December 3, 2018 Anthony Torres, Wsws.org Resist! Class Struggle, France, Protests, Repression, Workers

The third Saturday protest held by protesters, clad in yellow vests to show their opposition to French President Emmanuel Macron and his anti-worker policies, spread across France. In downtown Paris, the protesters faced an unprecedented police crackdown, the most violent since May 1968, when police assaults on student demonstrations triggered the French general strike. The movement is rapidly developing into an international political protest against social inequality, the high cost of living, and the policies of austerity and war across Europe. After protests in France and Belgium, protesters also donned yellow vests to oppose state policies in Maastricht, Nijmegen and The Hague in the Netherlands.

How Graduate Unions Are Winning—And Scaring The Hell Out Of Bosses—In The Trump Era

December 3, 2018 Daniel Moattar, Inthesetimes.com Create! Class Struggle, Higher Education, Students, Unions

In a 1,035 to 720 vote, Columbia University’s graduate student union has agreed to a bargaining framework with the university’s administration, a milestone victory in the union’s nearly five-year campaign for recognition. The vote outcome, announced earlier this week, follows Columbia’s November 19 announcement that it would bargain with the union, ending long-standing efforts to halt graduate unionization on campus and in the courts. Columbia’s decision is the latest—and one of the most notable—in a string of concessions by university administrators at private institutions across the country. It’s a wave of labor action that belongs to the Trump era: The NLRB’s Columbia University ruling, extending bargaining rights to graduate workers at private universities...

The Real Economics Of Migration

December 3, 2018 Ian Goldin and Benjamin Nabarro, Project-syndicate.org Educate! Class Struggle, Immigration, Migration, Nationalism, New Economy

Their strategy, while often electorally successful, is laying a foundation for weaker growth and higher levels of inequality across the world’s aging advanced economies. Debates about immigration are roiling the world’s democracies. In the run-up to the US midterm elections this year, President Donald Trump sought to rally his base by making an issue out of a “caravan” of impoverished Central Americans making its way on foot to the southern border. In the United Kingdom, warnings of imminent mass immigration of Turkish people contributed to the June 2016 vote in favor of leaving the European Union. In Italy, Hungary, Austria, and elsewhere, populists have tightened their grip on power by politicizing flows of migrants and asylum seekers from the Middle East and North Africa.

GM Closures: Oshawa Needs More Than ‘Thoughts And Prayers’

November 28, 2018 Steven High, Theconversation.com Educate! Class Struggle, Factories, General Motors, Workers Rights and Jobs

All eyes in Canada have turned to Oshawa, Ont., following the announcement by General Motors that it will end auto manufacturing in the city after more than a century of production. In the coming days we will hear about community resilience and the inevitability of market forces. Some of those impacted will be asked to share their feelings and politicians of all stripes will send their thoughts and prayers to the nearly 3,000 autoworkers who will be out of work. Then we will all move on. Does any of this sound familiar? It should. We have been living this story for decades. North America is filled with former mine, mill and factory towns. Some were once synonymous with the departing company or the products that they produced.

The Tunisian Inspiration: Countering Authoritarianism With Social Justice Unionism

November 24, 2018 Shawna Bader-Blau, Unionist.com Strategize! Class Struggle, Middle East, Tunisia, Unions

Looking around the world today, it may seem bleak: crackdowns on civil liberties and worker rights are happening everywhere: Cambodia, Colombia, Egypt, Hungary, Turkey, the United States and elsewhere. Yet whenever and wherever basic rights are under attack, there always will be people resisting. The question for unions is: Will the labor movement be a part of that resistance—or not? In Tunisia, unions answered with a resounding, “Yes!”

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